Taking Chances
by 4everpixie
Summary: Rachel was who was supposed to go through this not Lea...For my previous readers I had taken this story off here but I decided to bring it back. I didn't feel right not having it here with you who inspired me to write it in the first place. I will be loading chapters again some the same and some with little changes.
1. And so it begins

The day was finally here first day of filming. I knew I would have wardrobe but I still stayed up late night trying to decide on what to wear, how to do my hair, even how to introduce myself! I hoped the muffins I had baked made it easier for everyone today. Most of us had already met a few days ago but the male lead was still had not been able to make it to the LA, I had heard he was having some kind of legal issues. Not sure what kind but hoped they were being resolved soon. As I arrived on the set I felt the nerves disappear I knew this was where I belonged. I had just been cast as Rachel on a new musical comedy-drama show. Rachel is the daughter of an interracial same-sex couple, she is strong and driven but somewhat neurotic. She somewhat reminded me of myself at the start of my acting career.

I arrived early enough to greet everyone as they arrived, well almost everyone. I was in the wardrobe trailer behind a partition finishing up trying out my first outfit when I heard someone come inside.

" Hello?" I heard a male voice say.

" Yes? Can I help you?" I heard Lou respond.

"I'm looking for Lou." He responded.

"I'm Lou."

"Oh hi, I'm Cory. Ryan sent me down, sorry I'm late I got a bit lost in the lot. I will be playing Finn"

"Finn, I was wondering when I was going to meet you. Well look at you aren't you extra tall" Lou answered.

I wanted to peek around the partition to see what this "Cory" guy looked like. His voice sounded nice and pleasant. Rachel Berry is supposed to fall in love with Finn instantly and I didn't even know what he looked like.

"Ok Cory here is your clothes you can try them in here or in your trailer just don't go on set without me seeing how you look"

"Try them here?"

Lou laughed "Don't worry not in front of me you can go behind this partition. Oh wait Lea is there right now."

"Lea? She is here?" he asked.

Wait he knew who I was. How? Should I come out? Should I wait for an introduction? I stood there not knowing what to do. Not knowing why I was feeling so nervous to meet him.

"Yea she is" Lou answered, "Hey Lea? Are you ok to come out now?"

Oh shoot that was my cue I thought.

" Um, yea Lou I'll be right out" I called out.

I stepped out of the partition, looking down at my skirt as if trying to straighten it out. "Well how do I look?", I asked without looking up.

"I would say very Rachel Berry" Lou answered.

"You look nice" I heard Cory say.

At that moment I looked up. Oh my Lou was right he was tall and something she did not mention he was handsome. He stared down at me with intense hazel eyes.

"Oh, thank you", I said. "Nice to meet you, I'm Lea" I said as I stretched my hand to greet him.

"I sure know who you are" he said and walked over to shake my hand. "I'm Cory, Cory Monteith"

As our hands touched I felt a shiver go down my spine. His grip was strong but at the same time so soft.

"I bet this will be a change for you right?" he said.

"I'm sorry change?" I answered a bit surprised that I couldn't believe I was still holding his hand, which at that moment I let go and acted like I had to fix my hair.

"Well yea a change, you know from Broadway coming from Spring Awakening and now doing a television series" he said with a smile. Nice warm crooked smile.

Oh come on Lea concentrate I said shaking my head. "Oh, Yea I guess a bit of a change I won't have a live audience to get feedback from right away." I laughed.

"Wow" he laughed "You have a great laugh, I don't think I have ever heard anyone laugh quite like you." he said as he walked behind the partition. I was glad he was behind the partition that way he could not see me blush.

"Yea I get that a lot" I told him. "I guess people are not used to hearing someone my size laugh so loud."

"I like it" he answered from the partition.

I didn't even remember we were not alone until I heard Lou " Well I guess Ryan, Bryan and Dante sure know how to pick them"

I looked at Lou confused. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know if it's just me but it seems you two will have great chemistry, I can feel it. It's even given me goose bumps"

I hear Cory chuckle. "Well I'm all ready to go. How do I look?" he said stepping out from the partition.

There he stood with his blue jeans and his stripped polo shirt. Looking like a typical all American boy but something about just seemed right.

"Taller" I said with a smile. He smiled back, dazzling me for a second. "Just kidding Cory, you look good just as Finn Hudson should look"

"Great" he said "Well I guess I'm off, I've got to do a scene with Matthew right now. Thank you Lou" he said "Guess I will see you later Ms. Lea Michele." he said as he turned to me. I wonder if he could see me blushing,

"Yea of course, I've got to get ready to go sing to you, I mean sing for you, I mean sing with you"

Why did I sound so nervous? Come on Lea get it together I thought.

He chuckled, "Yea, You're the one that I want"

"What?" I asked shocked.

"Isn't that our first scene together?" He answered nervously "I thought our first scene was when we are in the theater room singing you're the one that I want from Grease. Am I wrong? I thought I memorized the schedule for today especially when I would work with you"

"Oh no sorry Cory I think I was the one I was confused with the scenes" I answered with a nervous chuckle.

"Ok then, later" he said as he walked out of the trailer in a hurry.

I then heard Lou laugh, again I forgo she was still here.

"What?" I asked her.

"Seems to me you like him" she said.

"No of course not, I have a boyfriend Lou who I like very much thank you."

"Uh-huh" she said chucking. "If you say so Ms. Lea Michele" she said sarcastically.

I do have a boyfriend who I do love. This Cory guy just got me all confused on my scenes. Confused on my scenes? I thought, I didn't even believe myself. I knew my scenes in order because I studied them over and over for the past few days. It's always good to be prepared.

I had to give myself a second glance in the mirror before stepping out to head over to the set. I then found myself thinking of Cory. Ms Lea Michele I remember him calling me. I smiled. He was nice I was sure we would get along just fine. It would make it so much easier for our characters. I would have no problem falling for him, I mean Rachel would have no problem falling for him. Rachel was supposed to fall for him not Lea, it was Rachel. I have Theo I love Theo. Yea that right, so forget you Cory I thought as I walked across the set seeing him talking to Matt.

I guess it is right, things are easier said than done.


	2. Journey

**Author's note: When I was re-reading Taking Chances I felt like I needed a transition before heading over to the next chapter. So i decided on this whole new chapter. :)**

* * *

"Stop Cory, wait stop"

I tried to hide my laugh very unsuccessfully.

"Sorry Zach" Cory responded but laughing along with me. "I got a little carried away. One more time. Sorry guys" Cory added looking over at Jenna, Chris, Amber and Kevin.

But the four of them were too busy holding their own laughter. Today was one of those long days at work and we had already been yelled at once. After working for long hours we had gone into silly mode. Playing around and at times not listening but after being yelled at we had decided to stop with the silly and get to work, unfortunately for us Cory didn't have to do much to throw us back into giggle mode. Of course he did it unintentionally he just couldn't help it at times but that was just who he was.

I was in the middle of a laugh when he came over putting his hand on my shoulder. Automatically I stopped laughing.

"I am really sorry Lea, I promise that I am not trying to keep any of us any later."

I stepped away from him. "Don't worry Cory we have all had our moments tonight. We will get through this."

He walked near me again. "I am glad they let everyone else go. At least that way I wouldn't have a whole mob of people upset at my two left feet."

I stepped back again. He looked at me and stepped back as well turning to leave.

"Cory" I said.

He hesitated for a moment but then turned to face me.

I wanted to apologize. But I was not sure exactly what I would be apologizing for. He waited for me to get my thoughts together. "Come lets go do this one more time. I have a feeling this will be the last take"

He took a deep breathe put his hand in his pockets, gave me a slight smile and walked back next to me on to the set.

"Sorry guys" he said as we reached the others.

"It's fine" Amber responded. "We are all not focused Zach just likes to torment you making you think it's just you."

"Yeah Cory, don't worry we are all in this together. Plus it's not like we have anything else to do" Jenna added.

"Right, except sleep." Chris indicated.

We all laughed.

"Guys, are you ready." Zach came over breaking our laughter. We all turned to look at Cory. He glanced over at each of us, stopping his eyes on me. I gave him a quick smile before looking away.

"Ready" I heard him say.

"Alright one more time from the top everyone." Zach yelled around the room. Cory walked to stand behind me.

"This is it" I told him bending over in front of him. He looked over to everyone, we all took in a deep breathe.

"I know" he whispered. We heard playback being yelled on the other side of the curtain and then "Push it" began to play. That was our cue and the performance begun.

"Cut, that's it we got it" Ryan yelled.

The six of us started clapping and laughing. We formed a circle and hugged each other.

"Great job everyone." I said as we separated.

"Good thing we got it because I don't know how much actual push I still had in me." Chris added.

"Who has an early day tomorrow?" Cory asked turning to look at me.

"My day starts at 10 but in the recording studio" Amber said.

"I'm off" Kevin said. Jenna and Chris both raised their hands nodding as well.

"Lea?" Cory asked still looking over at me.

"Not until 1." I answered.

"Me too." He said, "So it's only you and me tomorrow." He said with a smile.

"Good night everyone." I said turning away from the group and leaving the set. It couldn't just be him and I tomorrow. That just couldn't happen.

The next afternoon I arrived to set relieved to find that Cory and I were not alone. Matt's car was the first one I saw when I pulled in. But I knew my relief came too soon. When doing Broadway I got used to going on stage and basically making out among other things with Jonathan. I was not shy or nervous anymore or so I thought because today my nerves had kicked up a notch. I quickly went to wardrobe and hair and make-up and on to set. I had three scenes today and I was mostly worried about my third but I couldn't lose focus now. I moved on to do my first of two scenes with Jayma. It was easy to work with everyone. Everyone wanted this show to work and not only that but we all loved it. We had days that came with long hours going from choreography class, to the recording studio and on to set. The show was building triple threats and we were all so grateful to be able to be getting this opportunity.

Jayma and I finished our scenes by six pm that night and I knew the scene I was dreading was already catching up to me. I was walking towards the set when outside Jayma and Matt where talking.

"Hey guys" I said as I came up to them.

"Oh hey Lea" Matt answered as he gave me a hug. "Are you still staying here?"

"Yeah one more scene tonight and then I am free. What about you?"

"We are both done for the night but I have to be at the studio tomorrow." Matt replied.

"Oh really. Who is still here?' I asked.

"Not sure, I thought it was just Matt and I who were still until this late."

"Oh" I said. "Nope I am still here."

"Lea there you are. Ryan and Brad are ready to start." Carrie, the set assistant said as she walked out of the set.

"Duty calls." I said hugging them both good-bye. I walked onto the auditorium set. The cameras were up and everyone was ready. I felt bad now realizing I was making everyone wait.

"Sorry Ryan" I said semi running towards him. "I was outside talking to Matt and Jayma."

"It's alright don't worry you are just on time." He gestured towards the stage. There sat Cory by the piano talking to Brad. I walked slowly behind Ryan.

"You two ready for this?" Brad asked when he saw me behind Ryan. Cory turned to look at me. It stopped me on my tracks.

"Sure" I said. "Let's get this done."

Cory gave me a puzzled look. "I thought you liked these characters together?" he asked walking over to me.

"I still do." I replied walking around him to get to my spot.

"Are you ok?" he asked walking to his mark.

"I'm fine." I said not looking up at him.

"Then why are you trying to brush off the importance of this scene."

"Who said I am brushing? I completely get it how important this is and I am right on board to get it done right."

"Right." He responded rubbing his face in what seemed like annoyance to me.

Brad and Ryan explained the scene and what was needed. Brad wanted this done right and perfect. Just like me he liked this couple and wanted them to work. He wrote a lot of the scenes these two had and I knew his passion because deep down I felt it too.

Cory and I got most of the scene down. I was sitting in one of the seats in the crowd staring at the monitors as they filmed Cory's close-ups. He was smiling so widely he was making me smile like an idiot to myself. I needed to get out of here. I needed some air. I got up from my chair and walked outside feeling the fresh air hit my face.

"There you are" Carrie startled me from behind. "They want you inside"

"Carrie, I bet you are getting tired of always chasing all of us down." I said taking her by the arm.

"Let's just say it keeps things interesting and keeps me in shape."

I walked up to the stage where Cory was already waiting on his mark.

"Hey" he said as I sat down on my mark.

"Hey" I answered shakenly. This was nothing, this was going to be easy. I have done things like this all the time and this one was not any different. I was not sure if it was just me but Cory looked just as nervous as I felt a few seconds ago.

"Ready to make some magic" I said trying to break the tension. He smiled weakly.

"Alright you two whenever you are ready. Action" Ryan yelled from behind the monitors. Cory stared directly into my eyes and then I saw his eyes flash to my lips. He leaned in and I followed his lead slowly laying down underneath him. His eyes darting from my eyes and back and forth to my lips as if asking for permission. I made a mistake my looking down at his lips. My nerves kicked in and I had to stop, I had to.

"Ow, wait" I yelled before his face came any closer.

"Are you ok?" he asked startled getting up away from me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry"

"What happened?" Ryan and Brad asked in unison.

"I laid wrong on my hair and it was causing me to pull me to pull my head back. Sorry give me second. Carrie can you bring me the brush?"

Carried hurried to my side with the hair brush. I brushed it down peeking at Cory from under my lashes. He was looking around the room not sure what he was looking for.

"Ok, I'm ready" I said handing back the brush to Carrie.

"Alright from the top." Ryan yelled.

As soon as I got into my mark I felt it again the tension. But I couldn't break not anymore I needed this to be done and over with. Action was yelled and this time I was ready. Cory leaned in again, I followed laying down underneath him. He looked into my eyes and I knew he found the permission he was waiting for because his face came down closer to mine. Then his lips pressed into mine. I was going to push him away and stop this kiss but I knew if I did we would just to start again from the beginning. I then realized I still had my eyes open and shut them closed quickly. The kiss was slow and soft. My heart pounded just a little faster and something in the pit of my stomach I didn't understand. The kiss should have been over by now but I didn't feel him move anymore. I opened my eyes and his were open too staring back into mine now. I brought my hand up and pushed him off slowly.

"Cory?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah sorry." He said still looking down at me.

"Woah." Brad came over with a huge smile.

"What?" I asked.

"That was almost perfect. I mean I was nervous at first but now look I got chills." He said showing us his arm.

"Sorry, Brad we could of caught that in one take but" Cory started to say before Brad put a hand up.

"Cory its fine because if we would have done it in one take I probably would not have goosebumps now. But now we can continue where Finn leaves. Ready?" He asked looking back and forth from Cory and me. I looked over to Cory.

"Yeah" he nodded slowly. I laid back down. Cory followed giving me a smile as he looked at my concerned face. Why had he not continued with the scene? Why did he stop it?

He light placed his lips on mine almost as if he didn't want to touch them and I closed my eyes. We finished the scene and only twice did Cory have to kiss me. We were done for the night and I would have two days off to get myself together. I couldn't be any happier.

"Great night." Cory said as he caught up to me walking out of the set.

"Yeah" I replied. I rubbed my arms from the cold weather.

"Are you cold?" He asked reaching over to rub my arms with his hands. I stopped walking. He stopped along with me still rubbing my arms.

"I got to call Theo" I said starting to walk away.

"Right the boyfriend. Is he still in New York?" he asked from behind me.

I turned to look at him "For now, shouldn't be much longer until he is here."

He nodded and turned away from me walking in the opposite direction from where his car was parked. I wanted to yell after him but I was not sure why I wanted to do so or what I wanted to say. Instead I walked over to my car. I didn't have time to stop in wardrobe tonight I would just bring back the clothes on Monday. I needed to leave. I needed to get away. Away from the set, away from the tension, the confusion I felt being here at times. I need to get away, away from him.


	3. Business Dinner

**Author's Note: Chapter 3...Business dinner :)**

* * *

Here I was sitting in hair and make-up finishing the last touches to the Rachel make over feeling like I could barely breathe wearing this tight outfit. We were in the middle of recording our episodes and things were looking really great for our show. The entire group had formed a great bond already. It felt like we all had known each other for years, even though I did know Jenna since childhood and Dianna was living with me. Our chemistry between all of us had grown to be something special.

"Hey Lea!" Ryan exclaimed as he walked into the trailer interrupting my thoughts. "Wow you look amazing, are you ready?" he said.

"Yea I am all set even though I almost feel like I can't breathe with these leather pants." I told him with a laugh.

"Great let's go then, we will start with you in the restroom then you come out to sing to Cory." he said as we walked over to the set.

"Finn!" I responded almost yelling.

Ryan chuckled "Why does it bother you so much that I mention Cory or actually I have noticed it bothers you when anyone mentions him? Are you having problems with him?" he asked.

"NO, of course not Ryan! It doesn't bother me and we are not having problems" I told him "It's just that I want to be in character before a scene and well my scene is with Finn not Cory."

"Oh ok, I understand" Ryan responded giving me a slight smile.

It was true I had no problems with Cory he had been great very professional we had actually developed a great bond like family, but for some reason I always felt nervous around him.

I arrived to set and there he was sitting in Rachel's bed talking with Brad. He looked so big compared to the little bed he was sitting in.

"Ok guys so Lea" Ryan motioned to me; Cory looked up to see me. Why was he looking at me like that? "You go inside the restroom and just say your beginning lines from in there, now Cory, uh I mean Finn" Ryan said as he looked my way "You are waiting for Rachel to come out, and well you guys know, Places everyone"

I walked passed Cory afraid to look at him but I could feel his eyes on me. If Rachel was to feel nerves before stepping out of the bathroom there was no need to try to act because I was feeling those nerves right now. Plus having this tight outfit was not helping by breathing issue.

"Ok silence on the set" I heard Ryan call out "Camera, lights and action!"

I read my lines from the other side of the wall as there was no camera to record me while I spoke. Ok Lea get your butterflies together and go out there. You are Rachel, you are Rachel and Rachel is not afraid I thought to myself. I stepped out from behind the wall and delivered the scene.

Finished the scene with flying colors. I felt so proud. I don't know what I was so afraid of in the first place but still felt so good to finally get that over with. We did the scenes a few more times in order to get the camera on Cory and then on myself.

"Great job guys' Ryan said "We will call it a wrap for tonight, see you guys tomorrow."

I started to walk away when I heard Cory call me "Hey Lea, wait up."

I was afraid to turn around so I decide to wait for him. I stopped walking and waited until he reached my side. It didn't take him long to catch up to me as one of his steps was like 3 of mine.

"Where are you going in such a rush? Is everything ok?" He asked.

"Yea of course everything is ok" I told him "I am actually in a rush to get this wig off its really itching my head" I told him with a smile and began walking again.

He laughed "Well if everything is ok I was wondering if you would mind coming to dinner with me today?"

I stopped in shock. Did he just ask me out? Was this a date? He obviously didn't realize I was in shock and had stopped as he kept walking. He then realized I was no longer at his side and turned to look at me.

"Lea it's ok if you are busy. Don't worry about it you can say No" he said "You don't have to always say yes to everyone. I just wanted to talk to you about Finn and Rachel, but its ok we can do it some other time"

I stared at him for a while, he was about to walk away as I was giving him no answer.

"Yes Cory I will go out to dinner with you" I told him

"No Lea I don't want to be a burden Its ok really don't worry about it" he said

"No Cory its no burden I was just thinking of if I had made any plans for tonight that's why I didn't answer you right away." I told him.

"Are you sure?" he asked again

"Yes!" I shouted "I just have to call Dianna so she won't wait up for me"

"Ok, Ok" he said putting his hands up like he was giving up "I will be in my trailer just text me when your done with your curly wig and I will come get you" he said as he grabbed a strand of the wig in between his fingers.

"Ok good I will be out soon, I'm going to go to wardrobe after removing the wig to remove this outfit" I told him " I can just take my car and meet you at the restaurant." I said.

" No of course not, we can take my car and then I will bring you back to pick yours up"

"Ok then, I will see you in a bit" I told him.

He turned away towards his trailer. I started to walk away as well when I heard him call from across the lot.

" Oh yea by the way Lea that outfit looks amazing on you" he screamed, I turned around to see where he was at " You are more than welcome to wear it to dinner" he said with a chuckle.

I had no response I just turned around before he could see me smiling. He was such a dork sometimes. He made jokes that made no sense. But they never failed to make me laugh, he never failed to make me laugh.

I was finishing up with hair and make up when I decide to text Dianna to not wait up for me that igt was going to be a long night. I couldn't bring myself to tell her about dinner with Cory I didn't want her to get the wrong idea. Was I getting the wrong idea? First I wanted to make sure this was a dinner to talk about work a "business dinner" yea that was all it was. Then why was I feeling so nervous, Why was my stomach turning so much.

I then decided to text Cory and let him know I was ready "Ok Cory all done meet you by your car" I typed, with a little hesitation before I pressed "send"

I then heard my phone beep. It was him. The text said "Great Lea! I will meet you there. Hope you are wearing your cat suit ;) "

I took a deep breath and headed out towards his car to have a "business dinner"

I had Never noticed how beautiful a night in LA was, even though it had no comparison to my hometown my city, my New York. There I was sitting in his car unable to speak unable to look at him. I felt the tension in the car. He didn't speak either. Was he nervous too? Could he hear my heartbeat? Because I could feel it and almost felt like it wanted to jump out of my chest.

"I hope you are hungry" he said as he broke the silence.

"Yea starving actually" I told him.

"Great" he said enthusiastically "We are almost there"

We arrived at a small little restaurant near the Santa Monica Pier I could hear the waves of the beach hit the shore as we walked towards the restaurant.

He asked for a private table. The waitress guided us towards a table on the corner away from the crowd but with a great view of the pier. He handed me a menu to look over as he ordered some red wine for both of us.

"Oh I am sorry Lea, I hope you don't mind I ordered you some wine, I guess I should of asked you first" he said shyly.

"Oh no its fine Cory great choice" I assured him. I actually would of have ordered that myself as I felt like I needed a little liquid bravery tonight.

The waitress returned with our drinks and we gave her our food order. My guess is she was very fond of Cory because she made sure to always look and smile at him, though she was not being rude to me I guess just extra friendly with Cory.

When the waitress finally left I looked across the table at him as he went through his thoughts trying to decide what to say next.

He smiled his crooked smile. "Lea are we really ok?" he said "I mean I think we are cool but recently its like…I don't know" he said rubbing the back of his neck. "Like you don't want to talk to me. I think you are a great person and if I did or said anything to offend you in any way I really want us to have this open communication and I would really like you to let me know"

I stared at him unsure of how to answer him. I then said "Cory, really like I told you we are ok, everything is fine. No you have not done anything to me or said anything to offend me, I think I should be the one to apologize to you if I made you feel that in any way."

He smiled at me and said "Great!, I think you are such a great friend and would hate to lose such a great friendship with you"

"Friend" why did I feel like I was just punched in the stomach when he said that. This feeling was so wrong.

"I think you a great friend too " I told him " I also value our friendship and I promise you that things will be different, no more awkwardness from me" I told him with a smile.

He stretched out his hand to touch my hand across the table. "Good I would love that" he said. His touch gave me a shock that ran up my arm and somehow I felt it all the way at the pit of my stomach. I took my gaze off the connection our hands were doing and looked up to see his face. His clear hazel eyes staring back into mine. There was something there, something was looking back at me from inside him like I could see his soul. I felt and heard my heart speed up its beat, what is going on I thought to myself. At that moment the waitress returned with our food, just in time before I could try to make sense of it all.

I felt like she paused to look at his hand over mine. She then just put our plates down and walked away. Cory's hand still over mine. I looked at our hands and then back at him.

"Um Cory, I do like my food that I ordered I don't think there is a need for you to hold my hand while I eat" I told him with a nervous laugh.

"Oh" he said as he moved his hand away very fast "Sorry Lea didn't realize I was still doing that" he said nervously. "Well Bon appetite"

I needed for him to let go of my hand there was no way I could sit there and pretend it didn't affect me the way it did. We ate our food in silence all you could hear was some light music coming from a speaker nearby. My food was really delicious and I was already on my second glass of wine. Cory was still on his first, actually he had barely even taken any sips of it.

"Hey Lea" he said in between the silence." I hate to ask this but can I taste your pasta?"

I laughed it was those moments those kind of request that he made that always made me laugh. "Of course it is really good you are going to love it"

He reached over with his fork and took some of my bow tie pasta. He put in his mouth and smiled and nodded his head.

"Mmmmhmm, You are so right it is delicious" he said.

"You are welcome to have some more if you like" I told him.

He then got up, picked up his chair and moved it beside me. "Why stretch across the table when I can just pick from you plate right beside me" he told me with a big grin.

I just smiled at him and took another sip of my wine. It was weird having him sit next to me but I felt comfortable. He turned to look at me as he saw me staring at him. I didn't turned away. I kept looking at him now really paying attention to his face. His beautiful hazel eyes again, he is cute, no he is handsome I thought. A cell phone ring broke my concentration. It was his cell phone. He reached into his coat pocket and took out his phone.

"Oops sorry Lea" he said as he frantically tried to silence his phone. "I forgot it's not polite to have a cell phone on during a date, I forgot to turn it off" he said as he turned off his phone.

"Date?" I asked him" I thought you wanted to talk about Finn and Rachel" I said to him confused.

"Well, its still a date" he said "Isn't it?" "Its not like a date-date because you have a boyfriend I know that"  
he said looking down at his plate." But its still a friendship date."

'Oh right!" I told him afraid to hurt his feelings "Friendship dates are the best! Next one we have you are bringing me here again, the food is amazing" I told him as I grabbed some food of his plate.

The waitress came back with our check and looked at Cory sitting beside me. She now seemed irritated like she didn't like that he was so close. Cory gave her back the check with the cash inside "Keep the change" he told her.

"Wait! Can I know how much it is? We can go half and half on the bill Cory" I told him.

"Are you crazy?" he said "A gentleman always pays for dinner" he said.

"Oh gentlemen" I said "Yea I forgot what they looked like."

When we came out of the restaurant instead of walking towards the car he guided me towards the beach. I had not noticed how chilly the night was until we were only a few feet away from the waves. Instantly I reached for Cory's arm and pulled close to him to try and keep warm.

"Here Lea" he said as he came to a stop and put his coat on me "We can go to the car if you like?" You are so tiny I know this chilly weather is not good for you"

"No Cory I'm ok" I told him through chattering teeth "Its so beautiful out, Can we just stay out for a few minutes, the water looks so beautiful under this moon light."

"Ok fine we can sit here in the sand for a few minutes" he said as he pulled me into his arms. " Nature is very beautiful" he said as he stared out on to the water.

"Yea" was all I could say. We sat there just listening to the sound of the waves hitting the shore. Felt so peaceful, so free it felt so…right. I didn't even feel cold anymore. It felt great sitting there so…romantic.

"Theo" I shouted as I jumped up.

"Where?" Cory said as he looked everywhere around.

"No he is not here" I said, " I was just remembering that I have to call him later and my phone's battery is almost dying and what kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't call my _boyfriend_ " I said the last part low.

"Oh right" he said, "well then we should go" he said as he walked towards the car without turning to look at me.

We walked in silence. He opened my door and I got in. I saw as he walked around the front of the car towards the driver's seat. He stood outside his door for a few moments as if debating to get in or not. After a few moments he finally got in the car. He started the car up in silence and began to drive.

"Thank you for coming to dinner tonight Lea it was great to talk to you away from the chaos" he said as he turned to give me one of his lovely smiles.

"Thank you for bringing me out today Cory, I really did enjoy our dinner even though I am still waiting for our Finchel conversation" I said.

"Oh right about that, actually I had no intentions to talk to you about our characters" he said shyly. "It was just an excuse for you to come to dinner tonight. I really just wanted to talk to you, you know about us. Just wanted to make sure we were ok."

"Oh, well you didn't have to lie to me Cory, you could of just said that" I told him.

"Yea I guess I should of, but now I know we have an open communication and I can tell you anything and you can tell me anything" he said.

After a few minutes I noticed he was driving nowhere near the studios.

"Um Cory, I think you might have taken a wrong turn somewhere because this I not towards the studios" I told him.

He chuckled "That's because we are not going to the studios, I am taking you home _Ms. Lea Michele"_ he said with a smile "No way I would let you drive after drinking all that wine"

"Geez! It was only two glasses, you're making it sound like I chugged down a bottle" I told him.

He laughed. "It doesn't matter I feel much better knowing you got home safe, I wouldn't want anything to happen to you" he said softly.

I just smiled and looked down at my hands afraid to look up and find him looking at me. We finally arrived at my apartment complex. He entered the parking garage and parked near the elevator. I was a little shock when he turned off the car and got out to come open my door.

"You didn't have to do that Cory" I told him "I am perfectly fine now that you brought me here"

He laughed and said, "You really don't like people doing things for you, do you?"

"Guess not" I told him shyly "I am used to doing things on my own, you know be a strong independent women" I said winking at him.

"It doesn't mean you have to be that all the time" he said as he came close to me "You need to let others pamper you and treat you right, never sell yourself short"

He was coming closer to me. My heart began to raise. Oh no was he going to kiss me? Was I ready to push him away? I closed my eyes. Theo! Theo! Theo I love him! I thought. He then broke my concentration as I heard him close the car door behind me.

"Do you want me to walk you to your door?" he asked.

I opened my eyes and saw he was standing away from now.

"No I'm alright" I said "Thank you though, good night Cory." I reached over to give him a hug.

"Good night Lea" he said as he bend down enough to reach me.

As we parted from our hug he kissed me softly on the cheek. I could feel his warm breathing on the side and he whispered "Don't sell yourself short Lea make sure you get treated as the great girl, woman, you are" he said and kissed my cheek once more.

I just nodded and kissed his cheek back. I walked over to the elevator. When the doors opened I walked inside and turned to look his way. There he stood by his car looking my way. He waved me good-bye and on his face I could see a small crooked smile. I waved and smiled at him as the elevator doors closed.


	4. Explanations

I got into the apartment not wanting to make any noise to wake up Dianna. Slowly on my tip-e-toes I started to walked towards my room when the living room light went on.

"Excuse me young lady but do you know what time it is?" Dianna said from the couch.

I slowly turned around to her and said "Well I believe it's almost midnight, ok good night."

"Not so fast" she said "Come here missy I think there is some explaining that needs to be done"

"Explaining?" I asked her "I text you remember it was a long night of shooting"

"Oh really? So is that the story that you are sticking to?" she asked.

I walked over to sit next to her to the couch. Besides my best friend Jon, Dianna was the other person who I would allow to interrogate me. She just sat there staring at me with an unconvinced facial expression and crossing her arms in front of her.

"Dianna stop looking at me like that I told her, don't raise your eyebrow like that."

"Fine Lea I will stop just tell me where did you go…..with Cory?" she said with a wide grin.

"Cory?!" I shouted "where did you get that crazy idea" I told her avoiding her gaze.

"Well first of all Ryan called looking for you, he said he tried your cell but it went straight to voicemail"

"Well that's because the battery was dying so I turned it off " I told her as I reached for my phone in my purse, turned it back on and threw it back inside the purse.

"Secondly" she continued, "he said he called Cory's cell once you didn't pick up because he saw you guys leave the lot together, but he said Cory didn't pick up his phone either." She raised her eyebrow again.

I just stared at her not knowing what to say. She was good at looking for clues.

"Ok then no answer" she said "Thirdly you have his coat on"

I then realized that I was indeed still wearing his coat. I took it off and folded it in my arms. I could smell his lovely cologne still in it.

"Well?" Dianna insisted.

"Fine, Di!" I exclaimed, "I was out with Cory" I got off the couch "Good night" I said and started towards my room.

"Hey! Hey! Wait right there" Dianna called after me. I turned to face her again looking annoyed. "Come back and sit in this couch we are not done with this conversation" she said.

I hesitated for a little and then walked over to the couch and sat back down.

"Now remove that pout off your lips. You have and spill the details." she said

"There are no details Di, there really is nothing much to say." I told her "Yes he took me to dinner but it was just a business dinner"

"Yea whatever, tell that to someone else Lea" she said sarcastically "Come on I am your roommate and your friend, I know you very well. There is something there and the whole "business dinner" deal yea you know you don't even believe that, are we not those kinds of friends who tell each other the good and bad stuff? Do you not trust me?" she said that last question sadly.

I stared at her for a bit. She was right she did know me well and I did trust her but what was there to say, nothing happened and deep down I can feel I was disappointed at that fact but I was not ready to share these specific feelings yet. Not until I figured what all these weird wrong feelings were.

"I do trust you Di, we are friends." I started to tell her. "Cory asked me to go to dinner with him because he wanted to talk about us."

"US!?" Dianna yelled "Oh man I didn't even know you two had an 'us", Lea you have been holding out on me. Should I heat up some popcorn for this story because it seems to me you have to start from the beginning, wait what happened to Theo when did that end? Or is it still going on? Uuuuuh interesting, yup I need popcorn" she said as she got off the couch to go the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes "Di, come on there is no "us" I told her "Get back on this couch if you want to hear the rest of this"

She quickly came back and took her seat. "Then what did you mean us?" she said.

"Well he said he felt like we had drifted apart, he thought he might had offended me in some way because I was kind of giving him the cold shoulder" I told her guilty.

"Yea that is true, I've noticed that too. I was going to ask you about that" she said.

"Stop interrupting me!" I told her.

She mouthed the word "sorry" and acted like she zipped her lips shut, locked it and threw the key.

I rolled my eyes at her again. "Ok so he took me to dinner to this little restaurant, we talked I told him everything was fine between us. We then walked over to the beach and it got cold that's why I have his coat because he let me borrow it. Then that was it. He dropped me off and now I'm here dealing with a crazy detective interrogating me at midnight!" I told.

She smiled. "Wait you said he dropped you off? Where is your car?"

"Yes he dropped me off, so that means you have to take me to work tomorrow. He dropped me off because I had some wine and I didn't want to drive after drinking." I told her. I didn't want to mention to her that HE wouldn't let me drive after two glasses of wine because I knew she would make a big deal and probably say something about how nice he is.

"Oh, see that wasn't so hard right to come out with the truth." she said "But come on Lea how cute of Cory to let you borrow his coat awe" she said. I rolled my eyes. "He was freezing and you were all nice and toasty, and then he goes the opposite direction to bring you home because you asked him to, he is so nice"

I knew that was coming. "Oh geez, Di you are impossible you make a big deal of such small things"

"Well sometimes is those small things, those small details that make more of an impact. Don't you think?" she said to me with a wink.

She was right it was little details I loved. I love small details of affection. Why make a public display of things when doing something so simple like open a car door for someone can have a better effect. At that moment my phone beeped. I reached for it in my purse. It was a text from Cory " _Lea I know you and I have an early call tomorrow instead of making Dianna be there earlier than she has to be. I will stop by to pick you up at 7am and I will take you to work with me_ _I'm not taking no for an answer. Sweet dreams. XO Cory_ " I smiled reading that text. Wait he was thinking about me? No Lea he was remembering you don't have a car because he made you leave it at work that is all. A friend being a friend I told myself.

"Tell Theo I said Hi" Dianna said interrupting my thoughts.

"What, Theo?" I answered confused.

"Yea, by the way you are smiling from ear to ear I am guessing that's Theo sending you a message right." she said "I mean who else could be make you smile that wide with a text, Lea" she said to me with a smile.

"Right, yea your right Theo." I told her. I got off the couch and moved towards by room. When I reached my door I turned towards Dianna. "Hey Di, um tomorrow you don't need to get up early to give me a ride I just remember that before he left Cory said he would come pick me up since we have early call tomorrow"

"Oh" she said as she got off the couch and walked towards me "I'm so glad you "just" remembered this"

"Good night Dianna" I told her as I walked in my room.

"Good night Lea. FYI this thing that is going on with Cory, you cannot keep it to yourself, sooner or later you are going to have to tell me about it or you know me I will find out what's going on"

"There is nothing going on Di, now I'm going to bed because I have to get up early" I told her.

"Uh-huh, you keep telling yourself that. I will find out" she said as she walked into her room and closed her door.

Was there something going on? So what if I didn't tell her Cory text me. That's not a crime. I read the text he sent me again. I then reached for his coat that I had placed on top of my dresser. I inhaled the fragrance of his cologne again. It was such a great smell. I laid down in my bed and started to think of ways to not let anything affect me working with him again. He was after all my friend. We have a great friendship and I would hate to lose what we have, our characters were moving forward and I will move forward with them.

As my thought slowly drifted into dreams, I fell asleep holding on to his coat inhaling every bit of cologne that was in it. I let myself drift away to the beauty of what was in my dreams.


	5. Rock of Ages

Finally our first episode aired. It was such an amazing feeling. I had done the Broadway scene but now watching myself on TV was just a whole new feeling. Everything was going great. We were all about to embark in some extreme tour to promote our show. Traveling was one of my favorite things to do. Meeting amazing people along the way and learning different cultures. The past few months had been magnificent. No more awkwardness between Cory and me. Instead our friendship was stronger. I felt more and more comfortable with him.

It was great that Cory's and my friendship was doing so well because we were paired up in basically every interview. It was evident from the first episode everyone wanted our characters to be together. He did such an amazing Australian accent. We were doing an interview for a radio show in Sydney when they had us do a couple dialogue lines with an Australian accent. Of course he nailed it. He was so good at it, as for me I sounded British but it was still fun. Cory and I flew out together from Sydney to LA. It's amazing how much you can know about a person when dealing with each other on a 14 hour flight. Yes we were always together at work but we were always busy this was different we had to sit next to each other for 14 hours and had nowhere else we could go. The trip was great, he was great. Cory and I again would be heading on another trip this time to my home town, New York. We had to do a couple of interviews but would have a little down time. First order of business would be Central Park. We decided on the plane we would go together.

"Thank you for letting me come with you this morning to Central Park" I told Cory as we walked into the park each of us holding a cup of coffee.

"No Thank you for coming with me, this is so beautiful so breath taking" he said as he took a deep breath of the park. I couldn't do anything but smile. We walked together in silence taking in every bit of it. I had been here before but every time still felt like the first time.

"Hey Lea" he said shyly breaking the silence after a few minutes. "I was wondering since this is your city and well it would be your turf, can you take me to a Broadway show?"

"Your first Broadway experience right?" I asked him.

"Yes and I thought who better to show me a great Broadway show than you, I know how passionate you are about it. I can hear your love for it every time you talk about it. But please be easy on me on the show. I would hate to fall asleep on my very first show. What do you say?" he said as he stopped walking to turn and look at me.

"Well" I started.

"Please, pretty please, Lea with a cherry on top" he pleaded making his lips into a pout. He looked so adorable I knew there was no way I could say no.

I laughed "Alright I will take you tonight and I have the perfect play for you to see but I won't tell you which one yet. By the way it's not fair for you to do that face at me? You look too cute" I told him without thinking.

"Great now I know how to get things from you" he said with a chuckle. He then put his arm out for me to take, I put my hand in between his arm and we walked the rest of the park arm in arm. Such a beautiful park. Today felt like I could really see its true beauty.

 _Later that night….._

I arrived with my parents to the street corner where all the theaters were. Cory was waiting for us there, he seemed so nervous. My dad got off the cab first, and as soon as Cory saw him he came over to greet him.

"Hello Mr. Sarfati, How are you?" he said to him while giving him a one arm hug. My parents had met Cory before and thought he was a great guy. A guy "who has his head screwed on right" my father had said one time.

"Come on Cory I have told you call me Marc" my father said.

"Right, sorry sir" Cory responded shyly. My dad just chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"Let me help you out, Mrs. Sarfati" he said as he stretched his hand out to help my mom out of the cab.

"Oh Cory please call me Edith" she told him as she embraced him in a hug.

He then stretched out his hand to help me out. "Hello Ms. Lea Michele or do you want me to also just to call you Lea?" he said to me with a wide smile.

"Oh Cory don't be silly its Ms. Lea Michele to you." I told him with a laugh.

He laughed "I wasn't sure how to dress so I decided to just wear jeans, I hope that's ok" he said shyly. He was wearing blue jeans, a white t-shirt, a dark navy blue hoodie with his white sneakers. So typical Cory.

"You look fine, I say clothes are clothes" my dad said with a laugh as he walked to walk arm in arm with my mom.

"Ok everyone lets go inside, we have to get our seats." I told them. "Cory for your first Broadway experience I decide to bring you to see Rock of Ages because I really think you will like it, it set in Hollywood in 1986" I told him as we walked inside the theater.

"See I knew you would not guide me wrong" he told me with a smile. He then bend over to whisper in my ear "By the way you look beautiful tonight." He put his arm out for me to take once again.

"Thank you" I told him as I blushed and took his arm.

We found our seats on the first row. Cory and I sat together while my parents sat beside him. Throughout the night I could see Cory was really enjoying the play. We sang together every song specially "Don't stop believing" that brought back a lot of memories of a just a few months ago.

"Wow that was amazing, Thank you so much Lea" Cory said after the play.

"You are welcome. I was sure you would like it" I told him "So how about we go get something to eat, what do you say mom? Dad?"

"Well actually" my dad started to say "Since we are already out I wanted to see if Edith would join me tonight on a date."

I turned to look at my mom with a big smile. "I would love to Marc" she told my dad.

"Do you mind taking Lea back home Cory?' my dad asked.

"No of course not Marc, don't worry I will take good care of her." he said nervously.

We kissed them good-bye and watched as they walked into the New York City night.

Cory then turned to me "Lea would you mind before I take you home can we take a stroll in Central park, I've always wanted to go there at night" He said with a plea.

I stared up at him "Yes of course"

We walked over to Central Park and again walked in arm in arm. The park almost felt like a different park than the one we had walked in earlier today.

"Wow it sure does look different at night" Cory said as if answering my thought. "I love how the city lights just make this place look so magical, like a fairytale. Woah that sounded so cheesy."

I laughed. "Not at all I completely understand what you mean. I have been here several times and still get have to catch my breath every time I walk in here.

As we arrived to Bow Bridge there were a few musicians playing a beautiful melody it sounded so sweet I was almost sure it was a country song. Cory stopped put a few dollars in their empty guitar case and we began to walk towards the center of the bridge. It looked so beautiful. Besides the moonlight only 2 single light post lamps at each of the bridge lighted the way. Cory suddenly stopped and turned to look at me.

"Lea, I mean Ms. Lea Michele you look quite beautiful tonight, may I please have the honor of dancing with you this lovely song?" he asked as he bowed and extended his right hand to me.

"What? Cory are you crazy? Get up" I told him with a laugh. But he did not move. "Oh geez, Fine! Yes sir, you may have this dance" I made a small curtsy and took his hand.

He then took me in his arms and we began to dance the sweet slow melody.

'I know this song" Cory said with a laugh. Wait? Cory knew this song?

I think he waited for me to respond but I just stayed quite, unable even to raise my face to look at him. This song was so beautiful. We continued to move very slowly side to side, not really moving our feet.

Then I felt his breathe on the side of my face, " _Better than I was, more than I am and all of this happened by taking your hand_ " he whispered the lyrics in my ear. Chills ran up and down my back. Was he singing to himself? Was he singing to me? I finally decided to look up at him and I found him looking down at me, still singing almost like a whisper, enough for only me to hear. He smiled and I joined him in the song. " _It's your love it just does something to me, it sends a shock right through me, I can't get enough….."_

We finished singing the song and just stood there looking into each other's eyes. He gave me one of his crooked smiles. I felt like he wanted to say something, his eyes were almost yelling. If only they could speak I though. He then backed away and just smiled but not the same grin he always did but a more apologetic smile.

"I think it's time to take you home princess" he said, looking over at the water stream behind me.

I had no response. I grabbed his arm again and we walked out of the park in silence. We got into a cab and took what seemed like a long silent ride home. I would look at him from the corner of my eyes and it seemed like he was contemplating something. Whatever it was he dismissed the thought as cab came to a stop.

We arrived outside my apartment, he got out to open the door for me and helped me out.

"Sir Can you please wait just a little?" he told the cab driver.

"Well I told your dad I would bring you home and well here you are, thank you again Lea you have made this trip to New York one of the best trips. Not sure anything else can top this."

"You are welcome Cory, I'm glad you have enjoyed my city" I told him cheerfully.

He smiled "I really have, again thank you. Well you should get upstairs. Sweet dreams and um, say hi to Theo for me" as he said the last part he just looked down at his feet.

"I will" I told him softly, "Good night Cory have a safe ride to the hotel" I reached up to give him a hug then we must have been thinking the same thing because as I went to give him a kiss in the cheek he did the same and our lips touched for a quick second.

"Oh sorry Lea" he said quickly "I went right and I guess so did you, I promise I wasn't trying anything" he said with a nervous chuckle.

"Oh, its ok Cory it was my fault too". I was so nervous now and I really didn't understand why. I just stood there looking down at my shoes as if they were going to run away on their own. He then bent down and slowly and softly kissed my cheek lingering there for a bit as he embraced me in a hug his lips still on my cheek. I felt my face go incredibly warm but I also embraced him like if I didn't want him to go. He started the embrace and he had to be the one to end it as I was just hanging to his neck.

He stepped back towards the cab, opened the cab door and turned to look at me "Good night Ms. Lea Michele" he said and got into the cab. He waved as the cab drove off. I stood there at my door steps for a few minutes then decided to go inside and as I went up the stairs I sung to myself " _It's your love it just does something to me, it sends a shock right through me, I can't get enough."_


	6. Diversity Awards

Our life was just beginning to get even crazier. I could not believe the response of the fans. They loved our show. It was like magic the way everything was just happening. It was beginning to feel like a whirlwind. It was the night of the Diversity awards. I could not believe we were going to be honored there and be presented with an award. Kevin text me that day and told me Mark, Cory and himself were going to get ready at Kevin's place. Jenna, Amber and I decided to get ready at Amber's apartment. We could have gone elsewhere and have full on makeover with every kind of stylist and make-up artist but we liked being together. I guess seeing each other so many hours out of our days just was not enough.

"Can you guys believe everything that has been happening?" Jenna asked as she was doing her hair.

"I think it's kind of bizarre" Amber replied, "but it's pretty incredible feeling so much love"

"Yes I agree, it's amazing" I told them "I am really excited for what's to come for the rest of the season"

"Can that have anything to do with how Finn and Rachel are doing?" Amber teased.

"Oh shush" I told her "I'm just saying because it's going to be a great story line, the whole thing! Everyone's characters. I love the direction they are all going. I know season 2 will be amazing" 

"Yea ok" Jenna added "Are you sure that has nothing to do with you and Cory spending more time together?" Amber and Jenna both laughed.

I blushed. "No! You girls are impossible" I told them "Why does everyone assume there is something going on? I just don't get it. A girl and a guy can't just be really good friends"

"You don't get it or you don't want to accept it" Jenna said "Lea I know you, you have a hard time sometimes accepting things that are right there in front of you. Take Theo for instance, you would of never noticed him if it wasn't because Jon pushed you. Plus a girl and a guy can always be friends but you and Cory just friends?" She responded looking over at me.

That was true, but it wasn't like I did not notice him I just was not sure that I wanted to get involved in any kind of relationship at that time in my life. "Let me just make it clear to you guys again, there is nothing going on, Cory and I are great friends that is all. I can say the same for you and Kevin, Jenna. What's going between you two?"

"Kevin and I? We are having fun." Jenna answered with a huge smile.

"Well look Lea" Amber said to me "I believe you that there is nothing going on, but can you seriously tell me that you don't find him attractive?"

"Oh no it's not that, you both know that he is very handsome, he is a total goof, he makes me laugh, and he is very loyal. He is very honest. He is a great guy" I told them.

"Ok first of all I only asked you if you thought he was attractive not what do you like about him." Amber told me with a laugh. "Has he ever tried to put his moves on you? I know you guys have hung out a few times. And don't lie to me because I know."

"Yea we have hang out but nothing has ever happened. It's just two friends going out and enjoying each other's company. Nothing else. He is always a true gentleman plus he knows I have a boyfriend. And Cory has moves?" I laughed.

"Look all we are saying is that there is something there, maybe you guys don't see it but us as the outside world and being around you guys all the time we see something. The way you guys share some looks it's like…I don't know so confusing to all of us" Jenna said.

"Confusing…to you guys? I don't understand" I told her. I was confused myself at her statement.

"Never mind Lea, forget it. Let's just finish getting ready because the boys will be here soon."

I didn't understand what she meant about us confusing them. How? What were we doing that was sending them mix signals?

The boys did arrive about 30 minutes after our little girl chat. Once we were ready we headed down stairs towards the limo. Outside next to the limo door stood Mark with Cory to his left. He looked so cute with his black suit, a dark gray button up shirt underneath and a black tie. Simple yet so elegant.

"Hey Ladies, So Amber you come with me I shall be your date for tonight" Mark said while extending his hand for Amber to take.

"Date?" Amber asked looking at both Jenna and myself.

"Yes, the boys and I decided that its 3 of you and 3 of us. Kevin will be Jenna's date and Cory will be Lea's" Mark said.

I looked at Cory when Mark made his statement and just like Jenna, Amber and I Cory looked equally confused.

"Well then I will not complain at all." Amber responded as she took Mark's hand and got into the limo. I followed Amber to climb inside but Kevin stopped me.

"Excuse me Lea, Jenna and I are next" he said. Jenna just smiled and went in, followed by Kevin after.

Cory still looking as confused as I was, extended his left hand to me. I took his hand and went into the limo he followed in after me. Inside the limo Mark and Amber were sitting in the far end on the left while Jenna and Kevin sat across from them, leaving Cory and I at the back of the limo by the doors. We all talked and laughed on the way to the event. Making the best of every situation. Once inside the Luxe Hotel we found our table. Cory took the seat to my left while Mark took the seat to my right. It was such a great night with so many amazing people. We all felt so honored as we received the award for our show.

After the award show everyone decided they would come back to my place to have red velvet cake I had made the night before as a celebration for tonight.

"Finally I can take of these heels" Amber said as she took of her heels and sat down on the couch.

"Make yourselves at home guys, I'm going to take off this dress." I told them as I walked over to my room.

"If you need help just call out, we will send Cory to help you." Mark said making everyone laugh, except Cory and myself. I went into my room and changed into a pair of black shorts with a fitted white top. When I came out of my room they were all gathered around my kitchen, Jenna giving everyone a slice of cake.

"Lea this cake is delicious" Kevin said as he put another fork full of cake in his mouth. Everyone nodded in agreement their mouths full of cake to comment.

"Hey Lea, Can I please use your restroom?" Cory asked

"Yes of course Cory, here I will show you it's just down this hall first door on your right." I told him. He nodded and headed down the hall.

"Has anyone seen my phone? I think forgot it in the limo. I'm going downstairs to check for it." Mark said.

"Wait the limo is still here?" I asked.

"Yea we figured we would need a ride back home so we told the driver to wait for us" Kevin said "Hey Mark wait up I will go with you I need to talk to the limo driver plus I can help you search for your phone."

"Ok then, well Kevin and I will go get my phone" Mark said moving slowly towards the door.

"Hey Lea, Can I please have my stripped sweater I left here last week?" Jenna said.

"Oh yea give minute I have to go get it in my room, I remember putting it in one of my drawers." I told her as I headed towards my room. After a minute or two I came out of my room with Jenna's sweater.

"Ok here it is Jenna" I said with the sweater in my arm. "Hey Jenna?" No answer. "Amber?" No answer again.

"Are you ok Lea?" Cory said behind me. He made me jump.

"Oh, Cory you startled me" I told him. "I went to my room to get Jenna's sweater and now Amber and her are both gone."

"Really? Let me go check downstairs maybe they went down with the guys." he said as he started for the door. Right before he got to the door his cell phone rang. He took it out of his pocket, looked at who was calling, looked at me and then after a little hesitation he decided to pick up. Must be a girl, I thought, why else would he hesitate to answer.

"Hey you found it" he told whoever was in the other end of the line. "What, you have got to be kidding me." I heard him say. I decided to go into the kitchen to wash the dishes so he would not think I was listening to his conversation. Whoever it was he was on the phone with was really getting him upset, he was trying to whisper but I could still hear him from the kitchen.

"This is so wrong, I would not ever do that" he told the caller "That's not how it's supposed to be, NO I told you already NO." silence as he listened to his caller "You would think that but it's just not that easy" another moment of silence. "No, No not like this. I've got to go" he said and hung up on the caller.

He came towards the kitchen. I turned away from the sink to face him. I dried my hands on the apron I was wearing "Is everything ok, Cory?" I asked him.

"Mark, Amber, Kevin and Jenna left" he answered.

"Left?" I asked confused.

"Yea that was Mark who called me. He said the limo will take each of them home." he said.

"Wait, they left you here? Without a ride?" I asked in shock. No wonder he was so upset.

"Yea, don't worry Lea I'm going to call a cab to come get me right away so I can leave and let your rest." he said.

"Cory please don't be silly, stay here as long as you want" I told him. Dianna was in San Francisco and I hated staying at the apartment by myself. If the girls would have not left I would have tried to convince one of them to stay for a sleep over.

"Thank you." he said shyly "How about I help you with the dishes, you wash, I dry?" he asked grabbing a towel.

"Sure" I told him. Washing the dishes was so fast since it was both of us. "Thank you" I told him as he finished drying out the last plate.

"You are welcome" he said. He placed the last plate in the cupboard, dried his hands and turn to look at me.

"Hey how about we watch a movie" I told him breaking the connection of our eyes.

"Sure which one?" he asked as he followed me to the living room.

"Well let's see what we have" I told him as I looked through the DVD's. "Oh I've found one"

"Funny Girl" we both said at the same time. I burst out laughing. "Can we please watch it?" I asked him as I got on my knees next to him on the couch. I pouted my lips and batted my eyes "Please"

He smiled "Yes, of course we can" he said as he took the DVD from my hand and insert it into the DVD player. He came back and sat next to me. I reached for the control on the coffee table, grabbed a small blanket on the arm rest and turned on the TV. As we watched the movie I said every line. I couldn't help it and it seemed like he didn't mind he just watched with me. Barbara begun to sing "My Man" I couldn't help myself and sang along with her. As I continued singing I began to cry, Cory put his arm around me. As I finished singing I was overwhelmed with emotions, Cory embraced me.

"That song really gets to you?" He said to me in my ear almost as low as a whisper. I couldn't speak I just held on to him tighter. "It's ok Lea" he said smoothing out the back of my hair.

"Please don't cry, Lea" he said "Sing, scream or do whatever you want, just please don't cry. It breaks my heart seeing you cry.' He whispered in my ear. I felt so embarrassed that he was seeing me like this.

I brought my face up to look at him, he took his hands and with his thumbs, whipped the tears that were rolling down my face.

I stopped crying. We sat there looking at each other.

"Thank you Cory, It means a lot to me you care so much" I told him. I got on my knees on the couch and embraced him in a hug, holding on to his neck.

"Anytime Lea, anytime you need me I will be there no matter what. You mean so much to me" he said as he still held me.

"You mean a lot to me too Cory" I told him. He did mean a lot to me, I loved all my cast members the same or so I thought I loved them the same. But he was special, he meant so much more. We released our embrace very slow, I was sitting so close to him, so close to his face. I stared at his lips, those lips I had kissed as Rachel. I could feel his breathe near my face. He touched my face again. My mind and my heart were going crazy. Both yelling for him to kiss me. I just couldn't believe what I was thinking, what I wanted. But I did, I did want him to kiss me. I wanted him to be able to ready my mind, but he couldn't and he didn't. He released my face and got off the couch.

"I should go Lea it's getting late, I will call a cab a cab from the café down the street." he said.

I was still in the couch, frozen. I wanted to ask him to stay at least till the cab came around, but I didn't. Until I saw him near the door I got off the couch.

"Please let me know when you get home" I managed to say. He turned to me from the door.

He smiled. "Yes of course, I will text you just in case you are already asleep."

I just nodded. He walked out the door. That was a close one I thought. I stood by the door just trying to process all my thoughts. Before I could lock the door there was a knock. I opened the door, it was Cory.

"Oh hey did you for…" that was all I could say. He grabbed me and kissed me.

It was a sweet, slow tender kiss. I couldn't help myself I kissed him back. This was no friendly kiss but also not a passionate kiss. It was just a slow, perfect kiss. He held me from my waist as I hang to his neck. How many times had we kissed on set? but this was so different than those times. The hunger in the kiss grew. I held on tighter, ran my fingers through his hair. Slowly letting myself go into the kiss. But he started the kiss and he had to be the one to end it. We stopped kissing but still stayed face to face. He put his forehead over mine, our faces still inches apart.

"Sorry Lea, I could not leave without doing that" he whispered to my face. "Please don't hate me, please don't stop talking to me. I really had to get this out of my system. I am sorry, but I will never regret this"

"I could not hate you Cory" I answered back. "Neither will I" was all I could say. I was sure he understood.

He kissed me lightly on lips, just a little peck.

"Good night Ms. Lea Michele" he said giving me his beautiful smile.

"Good night Cory" I said as I closed the door. A huge smile grew on my face. Bringing my fingers to touch my lips, still feeling the warmness of where his lips had just been. I then remembered something. I hurried to get my phone, I had to share this. Share this with someone, someone who I knew cared for me, loved me. Loved me enough to want only happiness for me not matter what, someone who would always love me no strings attached. Someone who I loved very much also. Someone to whom I owed so much.

I began the text " _Kevin, Jenna, Amber, Mark, Cory Diversity Awards._ _ **Best. Night. Ever.**_ _"_ (Send) I pushed on my phone. The powers of social media will get me to what I needed tonight.

As I laid on my bed I heard my phone go off. It was a reply to my earlier message. "I _2_ _nd_ _that emotion RT_ " _Kevin, Jenna, Amber, Mark, Cory Diversity Awards._ _ **Best. Night. Ever."**_

I was hoping for that. I smiled. It truly was the **Best. Night. Ever.**


	7. Waiting

It had been 10 days and still nothing. No call. No text. No email. NOTHING. I just couldn't believe this. I didn't want to be the first one to make a move, the first one to reach out. He had been the one that kissed me so he should have been the first one to make some kind of contact. This was so annoying. Most of all I was annoyed at myself. I knew I should care so much and I tried not to allow myself to care at all.

I was glad to be back in New York. It helped I was so far away, there was no way I could just get in my car and drive over and demand an explanation about the incident. I was sitting in my apartment when my phone went off. It was a message. Not a text but a social media message. " _just landing in NYC! but first, we fly through a bumpy cloud over new jersey."_ He knew I was here and I didn't understand why he couldn't just text me? Then a thought begun to sink in. Maybe he didn't want to talk to me. He maybe didn't want anything else to deal with me. But then why post such a message. Just then before my mind and my feelings went into shock overload my phone beeped again this time it was a text.

" _Hey Lea, How are you? Wanted to let you know that I am in town. Would really like to get together and talk sometime if possible. Not sure if you have plans but I was wondering if you would like to go see Hamlet with me tonight. Xo Cory"_

I wasn't really sure what or how to reply. I knew we had to talk but after 10 days of nothing I wasn't sure I wanted to talk to him anymore. I hesitated for about 20 minutes then decided to reply.

" _I have no plans. I will meet you at the theater at 8. See you there."_ I hit send. No "xo" from me today buddy, I thought. My phone went off again " _Great. I will see you then."_

I had to really think of what I had to tell him. First of all why did he wait so long to reach out to me? Who did he think he was kissing people and then ignore them for days? I started pacing around my apartment, when I heard someone opening the front door.

"Hey Lea" It was Jonathan, my best friend. He had gone out to get us some food. He walked over to the kitchen to place the food down on the table. "I am so hungry. I have got some good food Lea, come on let's eat."

"I've lost my appetite" I told him "go ahead and eat." I walked over to the window. Should I even go tonight? Maybe I will just stand him up, yea that's what I could do. Have him feel what it is to wait for someone. I was starting to get lost in my thoughts when Jonathan came up behind me.

"What's wrong Lea, I know you have not ate anything all day." he walked over to be in front of me. "Did you have a fight with Theo?"

"What, no of course not Jon. Theo and I are fine" I told him as I turned away from him and headed to the kitchen. I started taking the food out of the bags and opening the containers. He brought Chinese food. He came over to help, he grabbed some drinks for us from the fridge.

"Ok, if it's not Theo then what is it?" he asked as he bit into a spring roll.

"Nothing, I'm fine." I told him as I grabbed some chopsticks to start eating some fried rice.

"Come on Lea, You have been acting weird the last couple days. Almost like you are not even here. Your phone goes off and it makes you jump and now you said you lost your appetite. For you to say that then something really must be going on."

I looked up from the fried rice container "I'm just tired I guess. I have a few photo shoots coming up and I want to make sure I am in great shape. That's all"

"I know there is something you are not telling me" he said as he grabbed my hand "Lea you are my best friend and I am sorry to say you're not such a great liar. Whatever is happening to you it's because of a boy" he said as he released my hand and sat back on his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

I rolled my eyes. I had to tell him, if I didn't this was going to eat me up. "Cory and I kissed" I told him shyly looking down at my feet.

"Wait, what?" he screamed in shock.

"Shhhh Jon, please"

He began to whisper "When was this? Where? Who kissed who? How did this happen?"

"Ok first of all that's a lot of questions, secondly it just happened a few days ago" I told him as I got up from my chair and went to sit on the couch. "It was the night of the Diversity awards. He kissed me and well I didn't push him off. And well I kind of kissed him back" I told him the last part low.

"No wonder you have been weird the last few days," he said "Wait are you planning to tell Theo? What do you mean kind of? Is that the reason you are here? Wait do you like Cory, I mean you know like him, like him." he walked over to the couch and sat next to me.

"No I am not planning to tell Theo, I came here to get away I needed to process everything" I told him as I laid me head down on his knee and looked up at his face.

"Process what exactly Lea, process the option of staying with Theo or going with Cory?" he said.

"No, I just wanted to see if I did have any feelings for Cory, if that kiss meant something to me. . He is special Jon. Come on you met him."

"Yea I have met him and yes he is a great guy. How special is he to you?" he asked.

"Well I don't know, he is just special. I feel different when I'm with him. Not bad different, I just feel calm I feel so comfortable. Yea he is so opposite of me but I just don't know how to explain it, there is something about him. And he is in town today. And he asked me to go see a play with him." I told him as I hid my face with a pillow.

"What about Theo? Have your feelings changed for him? Are you ready to let him go?" he asked as he removed the pillow from my face.

"That's where I am so confused. I still like Theo, I care for him very much. I don't think I want to break up with him. Yeah we have been having some issues and I don't want to use that as an excuse to just let him go and move on"

"So what are you going to do? Have them both? That is not you Lea. Think about it Theo has the same interest as you. He sings, he is an actor, he loves Broadway. He is dependable, he is sweet to you. Are you going to give it all away for a kiss that didn't mean anything? I'm sure he is the reason you have been obsessed about your phone, wondering if he text or call you. My guess is he didn't. "

That was all true. He was right. That was hurt me the most, the fact he did not even try to get in contact with me at all these past days.

"No I won't have them both. You are right Jon that kiss meant nothing. It didn't change anything, it didn't change how I feel about Theo. I need someone dependable like him in my life. Tired of these boys who never know what they want. I need to look forward." I told him as I got off the couch. "Well I have got to go get ready."

"Wait you are still going to go out with Cory?" he asked.

"Yes, I have to. He and I need to talk. He needs to know there is no feelings attached to that kiss. Plus he is my friend he deserves to hear it from me. Cory and I will be working together for a while and I want no kind of weirdness affecting our dynamic on the show." I told him as I went to my room.

In my room I processed everything Jon and I had just talked about, he was right. I had to be with Theo. I had to let go of any feelings for Cory. There were no feelings. I got in the shower. No feelings at all I kept saying in my head. No feelings at all, I kept thinking while I grabbed my outfit for tonight. Jon was right, I was making the right decision by staying with Theo. Yes he was right. Because that was what I wanted, I wanted Theo and that kiss meant nothing. It meant nothing to neither of us. I knew I was right. I knew that was the reason Cory had not reach out to me sooner. He didn't know how to tell me what I already knew. The kiss was just a kiss and nothing more. I was ready for him to tell me that I was ready for the truth.


	8. Good-Bye

Hamlet was such a beautiful play Jude Law was phenomenal. But I really could not concentrate fully on the play. Cory sat there next to me, every once in a while he would look towards me and give me his smile. That smile that I felt made my heart skip a beat every time. Half way through the play I decided I was better off not looking at him. Still I wonder if he noticed. When the play was over, as I started to get up from my seat I felt him grab me by the arm.

"Lea, wait" Cory said.

I didn't want to turn around and look at him. I sat back down and just faced forward towards the stage. I felt so foolish doing this but it had to be done.

"Lea we really need to talk" he started to say, "Are you even going to look at me?"

"Cory we can't just sit here and talk, it's a theater" I told him still not turning to look at him.

"Fine lets go" he said getting up and walking out of the theater. I followed him outside but didn't want to walk so close. We walked in silence until we got to Central Park. He kept walking in but I hesitated at the entrance, remembering the last time we were here.

"Cory" I yelled for him. He turned and saw me still standing at the entrance. "Why are we going in here?"

He walked back to where I was "There is a lot of people here we can just sit at a bench and talk sort of blend in, or would you rather go to a café where I'm sure people would recognize us?"

He was right, he had a point. "No, we can stay here" I said to him not wanting to meet his gaze. He turned back around and begun walking once again. I was hoping he did not walk anywhere near Bow Bridge, I did not want to spoil the last memory I had of him and I there. He must have read my mind because he came to a complete stop and turned to look at me.

"I think this spot will be fine, Let's have a sit here" he said pointing to a bench nearby.

We both took our seats and stared out to the New York City lights.

"If you didn't even want to see me or talk to me Lea, why did you even agree to come out with me tonight?" he asked. I turned to look at him and he was just staring down at his feet.

"Look Lea, I know why you're like this and I am sorry. I should have never kissed you, now things will be awkward between us and that was the last thing I wanted."

I wanted to speak but I didn't know where to start. I had rehearsed what I was going to say to him and now I just sat there looking at him, but I need to know where his thoughts were.

"What did you think would happen, Cory?" I asked him shyly.

He turned to look at me. "I wish I had an answer for you but I don't. I don't think I expected anything, I just knew I had to do it. I had to get that out my system. I have wanted to kiss you as myself for a while but never knew how you would react. Since I thought everything was cool between us I decided to go for it, but I never imagined it would ruin our friendship."

"Look Cory, our friendship is not ruined. I think I got a little carried away because I wasn't sure if you had any intentions with that kiss. I have a boyfriend and I plan to stay with my boyfriend that kiss changes nothing." I told him.

"Right I remember about Theo, which is why I wanted to meet with you today. Nothing changes everything stays the same. I really am sorry." he said as he turned again to look at the city.

"It's ok Cory, we are adults and we can talk about this but we are good now, right?" I asked him

"Yea we are good" he said. We sat there for a while just listening to the cars driving by. "Can I ask you something?" he said as he broke the silence.

"Anything" I said as I turned to look at him curious.

"Did you feel anything with the kiss?" he asked turning to look at me.

I sat there staring at him wanting to yell, YES! That I had not stopped thinking about him or the kiss for the past couple of days.

"I don't know Cory, I was really thrown off guard. My head is still so confused trying to make sense of it all. " I said to him.

"That's your problem Lea, you are using your head to figure out if you felt anything. Have you considered asking you heart?" he said to me without breaking his gaze.

"My heart gets confused easily and I don't need any more confusion. I have to get my things together and I need to be with Theo."

"You need to be with Theo? What do you want? Take a chance" he said as he stretched his hand to take mine. I moved my hand before he could touch it. This couldn't be. He just stared at where my hand used to be. I heard him sigh beside me.

"Theo is a very lucky guy Lea and I wish you guys all the best. I understand about your choice. I'm glad our friendship did not break. I am glad you will still be part of my life, and that you will get what you need in yours."

He got off the bench and turned to look at me. He bent down to bring his face close to mine.

"I know you felt something with that kiss even if you won't admit it. I know you felt something because I felt it too. There is no way that all that emotion all those feelings were only coming from me. I will respect your relationship between you and Theo." he said to me low as a whisper as he put a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"I will give you the space you need to make sure your head is no longer confused. But I do ask one favor from you" he said to me as I just stared into his hazel eyes. "I would like for you to really pay attention to your heart because I can feel how me being this close makes you feel. I know you are trying to tell yourself differently, but I can feel it." After a few seconds he got back up. "I will see you around Ms. Lea Michele." he said and started walking towards the parks exit.

As I watched him leave, he stopped and turned to face me a few feet away "Sweet Dreams Princess". He then turned back around and continued on his way.

I sat there on the bench for a few minutes. All this time I was worried about what the kiss meant to me. Not once did I ever think what did the kiss mean to him. He felt something. He had feelings for me. I didn't make any of it up in my mind, he actually had feelings for me. Tears begun streaming down my eyes.

I got off the bench and walked towards the lights of my New York.


	9. Changes

This day could not come fast enough. It had been 7 days since the last time I spoke with him. 7 days since the last time I saw his face. 7 days since I saw him walk away from me. I was a bit nervous to see him again after our conversation in the park. I was not sure if today things would be different between us. Was I the one that messed up our friendship? This was going to be one of the final times we would see each other before our holiday break. I wasn't sure if I was happy of the separation we would be having, I knew it was needed but wasn't sure if I wanted it.

When Diana and I arrived at the photo shoot Amber, Mark, Naya and Jenna were already there. I greeted them all. We were so happy to be together once again. It was weird how much we all missed each other each time. Shortly after Kevin and Cory walked in through the door. Kevin came over and greeted each of us. Cory stayed behind to finish a call he was on. Or was he avoiding me waiting until I was away from the group so he could come and talk to everyone, everyone but me.

"Lea, are you ok?" Dianna asked as she came over to me.

"Yea, of course" I told her. She was not aware of anything that had happened between Cory and I. It was better not to tell anyone besides Jonathan as he was the only one that knew about the kiss.

"Really? Because from what I can see once Cory came in through the door it was like the entire color of your face drained." Dianna said.

"What? No I think you are just seeing things, Dianna everything is fine." I told her and walked over to the make-up chair. As I sat there I could see Cory from the mirror, he had just finished his phone call. Or he noticed I was no longer there. He went over and gave everyone a hug, everyone except me. He was laughing, smiling with everyone not even turning my way. I knew things would be different but I wasn't ready for him to completely brush me off. Things were ruined.

He began a conversation with Mark and I could tell by his facial expression it was a serious conversation. Then my eyes caught his. He stared back at me from through the mirror. Not really sure what to do I smiled at him, he returned the smile, but it was a small crooked smile not the one I had become so used to seeing. He focused his eyes back towards Mark. I felt a pain at the pit of my stomach. I decided I was better off not looking at him. If he decided this separation between us was better than I would respect it as he said he would respect me.

It had become a great atmosphere at the photo shoot the music was playing we were all dolled up. I had just finished the last touched of wardrobe when he came up to me.

"Hey Lea" he said as he came over and gave me a hug. "Sorry I didn't come by sooner, I saw you were busy in make-up and then I had to go get ready"

"It's ok Cory. I actual thought you were not going talk to me" I told him nervously with a smile.

'No, of course not I wouldn't do something like that" he said as he put his hands in his pocket. "Imagine how awkward that would be if we didn't talk since we spend so much time together."

"Yea, would be awkward I am really glad nothing like that would ever happen, right?"

"Nope" he said as he was about to walk away when he turned back around. "Plus I don't think I could stay away from you" he said giving me one of his lovely smiles I missed so much.

I blushed and smiled at him. We walked together over to the backdrop to meet with everyone and begin our shoot.

Throughout the photo shoot it was like nothing had ever changed we were back to normal. He was playful as always. We all had so much fun together. We all knew this was something special and we had to cherish every moment of it. We all decided to have lunch together. We were sitting in a table set up by the staff. It was great being with my friends it was amazing that we all had this job and that we got along so well. Jenna, Amber, Dianna, Naya, Chris and I were in own conversation while the boys also had their own. Every once in a while I tried to listen to what kind of things they were talking about, it was mostly sports, music and video games. Boys will be boys.

"So Cory spill." I heard Mark say on one of my eavesdrop moments. "Did you hang out with her or what? I saw you tweet about her"

Her? Who where they talking about? Did Cory tell them about what happened between us?

"What I just said that she was brilliant, she is a great performer that's it" he told Mark as he smiled. I could see a low blush come across his face.

"I know you talked to Taylor, Cory I saw it with my own eyes" Kevin told him. I then realized who they were talking about.

"Ok fine so I did talk to her, Taylor is a great girl, she just isn't Taylor Swift the artist she is actually just Taylor all the time. She is a very nice girl, she is down to earth. She is hilarious, I mean like really she is so funny."

"Ok so what happened?" Mark asked.

"Nothing happened" Cory chuckled in response.

"You like her" Mark teased.

"I can't deny she is beautiful, I like that she is down to earth. I like that she isn't afraid to share her feelings." as he said that I saw him catch my eye. I quickly turned away and acted like I was into my own group's conversation.

"I saw you guys talking for a while" Kevin began saying "You were totally putting your moves on her, I saw how you hugged her." All the boys began to laugh.

Cory was blushing. "Stop it guys, come on she is a great girl but she is only 20 year's old." he said as he got off the table. The rest of the guys got up to followed him. That meant the rest of the conversation would be private.

"Well all I got to say is that if she is single and well you are completely single you should at least get to know the girl more." Mark told him as they walked away.

I couldn't hear the rest of their conversation, and I was done paying attention to my groups own conversation. I had to admit I was a little hurt by this, but then again what can I expect if I told him I wanted to be with Theo. I was watching Dianna do a few solo shots when I heard Mark and Kevin come over behind me.

"So did he decide to call her?" I heard Kevin ask.

"Yea, finally. Man it takes a lot to convince him to go for it. I don't understand why he doesn't at least get to know her." Mark answered.

Trying to be discreet I turned to look at Cory's direction, he was on the phone. He was standing by the make-up table and enjoying his conversation as his smile was from ear to ear. Right then I did something I never thought I would do, I walked over to the make-up table pretending I was trying to fix my eyeliner.

" _Yea that would be great. Yea it sounds like fun."_ I could hear Cory saying to Taylor " _Of course. Yes, talk to you later. Yea great catching up. Yes soon I promise. Ok take care. Bye."_ I saw him stare at his phone for a while with a big grin on his face. He then turned and saw me standing there. He gave me one of his half smiles. I returned him a smile even though I didn't want to look at him right now.

"What a long day, I am sure ready to go home." he said. "Photo shoots do take a long process"

"Yea, they do. I actually have a few more coming up. I have one for ELLE magazine tomorrow." I told him as I tried to hold from asking him about his friendly call.

"Lea I truly don't know how you do all of it." he said giving me a little chuckle. "Are you excited for winter break? Any plans?" He came over and took the seat at the make-up table to be face to face with me.

My heart began to speed up. I wonder if he heard it as he smiled at the same time. "Um, Yea I am excited I just don't really have anything planned. Free as a bird" just in case he had any plans I wanted him to know I was available. "What about you, any plans?"

"Nope, just ready to relax the promotional tour was really fun but I am a little tired. I think I am ready to do nothing" just then his phone rang. "Oh Lea excuse me I have to take this call."

And just like that he was gone. Since when could he not take a call in front of me? We always took calls in front of each other. There were no secrets. Then I remembered the only time I would not take a call in front of him was if Theo called. Which could only mean he was now getting a call from a girl. Who could that girl be? Taylor? Someone new? I had to let it go. Why wouldn't he be able to meet someone new, he was after all single and available, right? He was available to date whoever he wanted. I let him walk out of the park that night so I had to let him really go now.

With my schedule being so busy it kept my mind busy as well, kept me away from thinking about him. That was until I saw his message he was heading back home. I was heading back to NYC and he was heading back to Canada. I had time to clear my head. It was exactly the time and space I knew I needed even though it was bugging me thinking it was something I did not want. The holidays were great. Great to be with the family in my city. I had to start and get ready to go back to work in a few more days. A new year was to come. New changes. All I was really asking for was to get more strength, strength to stay away from him, strength to forget the past, move on to the future. 2010 was going to be a great year I was sure to make it a great year.


	10. People's Choice

Feels like going back to school after winter break. Feels so great, the excitement of seeing all my friends. We were nominated for some Golden Globe awards, so I was excited for that also. Today we were working with Zach our choreographer and then at night heading over to People's choice awards. I walked into our dance studio so ready to begin working ahead, it was nice to be off but I missed all of this. I greeted everyone. Just like me they were all excited to come back. He wasn't there. I discretely asked about him, no one had heard from him all winter break. They knew as much as I knew from the tweets he would send. We were getting ready to start rehearsal when he walked in. He looked nice, wearing his puma black shirt, blue gym shorts and a black hat.

'Hey sorry I know I'm late Zach, Sorry I was stuck talking to Ryan, you can ask him if you want." he said as he walked in hugging everyone on his way in.

"We haven't started, Cory so you are still ok, if not I would punish you making you dance by yourself." Zach told him as he walked over to greet him. "Alright everyone lets stretch out first before we start working on this new dance."

I began stretching when he came over to greet me. "Hey beautiful I missed you." he said as he embraced me in a big hug. All this time apart and he still made me tremble. He smelled so good. He released our hug but stood there just smiling at me. He had not shaved so he looked so rugged, love that look. He gave me his beautiful smile.

"Stop looking at me like that" I told him as I took his baseball cap. "What does this "B" stand for anyway?" I asked him as I pointed to the black B on the front of his hat.

"I'm just wondering why you are trying to look like Pippi Longstockings today" he said as he grabbed one of my braids. I just laughed. He took his hat and put it on me. "There perfect, it looks great on you".

"Thanks. I think we should begin stretching don't you think." I told him as I began stretching once more. He smiled and started stretching next to me.

It was great to be back in rehearsal, we all had so much energy from being off for a few days. With the Golden Globe nominations we had even more drive to finish our season. I just couldn't believe I was nominated I felt so honored. We only practiced our new number for a few hours because tonight we had to get ready to attend the People's choice award which we were nominated for also!

 _Later that night…._

I love and hate walking the red carpet. People are always screaming at you to look one way, to do a specific pose. It gets a little exhausting at times but its part of this new business so I have to do it. Once I was done with the red carpet I went in the Nokia Theater to find my seat. I noticed that I was sitting on a row alone with Cory behind the entire cast. A big smiled filled my face. At that same moment Amber and Jenna came up behind me.

"Well look at this Jenna, something looks planned to me" Amber told Jenna with a smile.

"Yes it sure does to me too, did you do it Lea? Did you arrange it for you and Cory to sit together?" she said with a laugh.

"What? No of course not I just got here and I just found my seat." I told them both.

"Well I think she did it" Mark said as he came up to us walking in with Dianna, Kevin and Chris.

"Whatever you guys, I will switch seats with any of you. Here Amber I will sit by Chris and you can sit with Cory." I started walking over to sit at Amber's seat when I saw Cory coming towards us.

"Hey guys" he said as he greeted everyone with a hug. "I figured if you guys were here already it would be easier for me to find my seat"

"Yea, here we are" Mark said as he started to walk over to his seat. "Lea and you sit behind us, Come on Jenna, Dianna your seats are over here." They all took their seats, including Amber and Chris.

"Lea, you want to sit by the aisle?" he asked as he motioned towards our seats.

"Well how about we take turns half of the show I will sit by the aisle and the other half you do?' I told him.

"Sure" he first went to take his seat as I took the seat next to the aisle. He looked so good today wearing a black suite with a dark gray button up shirt underneath, his natural style no tie. He caught me staring at him and gave me his tender smile.

"Here Cory let me take a picture of you, so I can show how well you clean up." I told him as I took out my cell phone from my pocket. He grabbed his ticket and put it up and gave me one of his "hey" faces. I couldn't help but laugh a little. I sent the picture so everyone could see how good he was looking. I looked at the responses of our fans, I couldn't help but smile they loved him. We all shared the same fascination for him.

"What are you giggling at Lea?" Cory asked as he saw me still reading the comments.

"Oh nothing, just great to know all these girls out there want you Cory, its amazing you are still single." I told him as I put my cell phone away.

"Oh, yea the fans are amazing. I do love them all, without them I couldn't do what I love to do."

I was about to ask him again as to why he was still single but the show began. The show was amazing! We got to meet so many amazing people. Best of all we won for Best New comedy. It felt so unreal when they said the shows name. I wanted to jump up my seat and hug Cory but I contained myself. He waited for me to get out of my seat, I think he wanted to walk next to me because I felt his hand on my back but I knew if I stayed near him I would end up embracing him in a hug so to contain myself I walked over and took Kevin's and Marks arms. We went upstage to accept our award and we had prepared a surprise for everyone. We gave them all pizza, I think they all thought we were joking until they saw the pizza coming out. After the acceptance of our award we went backstage for a few interviews. Cory came over and grabbed me in a hug. It felt so great. He released the hug but still held me from my waist, he smiled down at me. I was getting lost in his smile while they took us out to the press room for a few questions. Cory decided to take a picture of all us while we waited for the press to start with the questions. They asked to take a picture of Cory and myself only. He grabbed me from the waist and we began posing for pictures. It was so natural with him. After we were done with the pictures he grabbed my hand and walked me out to the backstage area.

"Lea can you believe we won" he said as he took me in his arms again.

"I know right so unbelievable" I really couldn't say much, I felt like I couldn't breathe from his tight embrace. "Um hey Cory, you are kind of holding me a little bit tight"

He released his hold but held on to me from my waist once again "Oh I'm sorry Lea guess I'm just so excited for all of this." He took his right hand and touched my cheek. He bend down and kissed my cheek. "You look amazing tonight, you look so beautiful." he said as he kissed my cheek again very gently. I placed my hand over his hand still on my cheek.

"Thank you Cory, your making me blush" I told him as I looked down towards the floor. He took his left hand and with his index finger brought my face back up to look up at him.

"Don't look away, let me just look at you a little longer." he began to bend his face closer to mine, I knew what was coming. I closed my eyes. I could feel his warm breather closer, maybe an inch or so away. Before his lips could touch mine my cell phone started ringing. I opened my eyes and saw Cory as frustrated as I felt.

"Sorry Cory" I said as I took the phone out of my pocket, it was Theo. I didn't know what to do. I just stared at my cell phone.

"Go ahead pick up, its ok. I'll talk to you later Lea" he said as he walked away.

I decided to answer the phone, Theo was just calling to congratulate me on the show's win. After I was done speaking with him I went to finish a few other interviews. I could see Cory was doing the same. Some he did on his own and some he did with a member of the cast. Before the night was over I wanted to be able to talk to him, I wasn't sure what I wanted to talk to him about but I know I wanted to just be near him. Who am I kidding of course I wanted him to finish what he had started, I did look for him but I could not find him.

"Hey Lea wait up" Dianna came up to me as I was walking towards my limo.

"Oh hey Di, you look beautiful. My feet are killing me I just want to get home and take this off."

"I know what you mean I am so tired, can you believe we have to do this again in a few weeks for the golden globes?"

"Yea I know, I am actually excited for those" I told her as we both got into the limo. "I couldn't find anyone else from the cast, do you know if they all left already"

"Yea they did, I think Cory was the only one that was still there" Dianna said.

"Cory? Are you sure? Because I didn't see him." I did search everywhere and I did not find him.

"Well the last time I saw him was like a minute or two before I came looking for you."

"Did you tell him you were leaving? Where was he?" I asked her well almost demanding it from her.

"Um, well I didn't tell him exactly I was leaving, I just waved at him from a few feet away. He did see me and waved bye, I really didn't want to interrupt him."

"Wait what, what was he doing that you didn't want to interrupt?"

"Oh well he was just sitting in a table in the corner talking to Taylor, and well Mark had told me that Cory was considering asking her out that I just felt like I didn't want Taylor to get the wrong idea of me coming up to Cory."

"Mark said Cory was going to ask her out?" I asked her not wanting to believe what I had just heard.

"Yea, Mark said something about Cory looking pretty down tonight. He didn't really want to say what was going on with Cory but that I guess he was tired of something, and he saw Taylor so Mark made Cory start a conversation with her, I don't know those guys always have their own things going on." she said as she removed her heels. "I think it's great for Cory, its about time he finds someone, Taylor is a beautiful girl and is good for him, don't you think."

"NO!" I shouted.

"What? Why not?" Dianna asked confused.

"I mean that yea she is a great girl but I don't know if she is the right girl for him, I mean I think he needs someone a little closer to his age."

"Lea, age has nothing to do with it. I think if he likes her and she likes him then its about time."

"Yea I guess, you are right" I told her.

When we reached our apartment, I went straight into my room. I removed my shoes and put on my PJs. I went into my bed and just curled up holding my pillow. I couldn't blame him from moving on, but why did it hurt so much.


	11. Lost

**Sorry for delaying on posting a new chapter, my laptop was broken and finally got it fixed :)**

* * *

The next couple of weeks went by pretty fast. Yet another award show. I like the rain but I really was not liking it today. I was wearing a black dress by Oscar de la Renta and I knew it was too big to be able to be covered by an umbrella. I had to make the most of it. I wanted the red carpet to be done and over with as soon as possible. Inside the awards ceremony everything seemed so unreal. I could not believe I was being surrounded by so many people that I have admired and almost all of them knew who I was and had seen our show. I did not really see Cory all night until we all went up stage to accept our award. Another surreal moment hearing the show won and our first season was not even over yet. After we all walked off stage we all started cheering so loud, I'm sure everyone could hear us. We all embraced in a group hug, then individual hugs while some of us began making our way to the press room. I was at the end waiting for Cory to finish hugging Ryan so I knew he would come down towards me next. No luck he walked into the press room with Ryan, I followed the others behind them. We did several interviews and unlike a few weeks ago when Cory was by my side the whole time, this time he was keeping his distance. At one point he was sitting next to Dianna and I could see his arm around her waist just like he would have been holding me. After our interviews I had my chance to go over and talk to him as he was chatting with Dianna. I walked over to both of them when I saw him embrace her in a hug I felt a sharp pain in the pit of my stomach. I brushed it off and approached them both with a big smile.

"Oh gosh I think I'm still dizzy from all the excitement." I told them both.

They released from the hug and both turned to look at me. I was still smiling. Dianna also had a smile on her face but Cory was just a blank stare.

"I know right, I was just telling Cory that is so unbelievable how everything is just happening so fast for us. Right Cory?"

He turned and smiled at her "Yea exactly, fast. Well I, um, I'm going to go talk to Mark." he said turning away from us.

"Wait Cory" I told him as I stretched to grab him from his arm. He turned to look at my direction very slowly but he would not look at my face. "Can we talk?" I told him.

"Yea of course, can it be later Lea I actually really need to go talk to Mark before I forget you know I have a short memory at times." he said giving me a weak smile but still not looking at me.

"Uh yea sure, yeah of course it's not important." I said letting him go.

"Cory wait" Dianna grabbed him again, "Whatever you have to tell Mark just tell me and I'll let him know. You can just stay here and talk to Lea"

"No Di, let him go" I told her "it's ok, I had nothing important to say" I turned and walked away from there as soon as possible.

Why would he not talk to m? I did not understand.

"Lea wait up" Dianna came up behind me. "Are you ok?"

"Yes I am." I told her still walking not turning to look at her.

"Ok stop then, I cannot run in these heels!" she shouted behind me.

I stopped walking but did not turn around.

"Thank you," she said as she reached my side, "I don't know what's going on between you and Cory but something is up, ever since the People's Choice awards I can see something is wrong. What happened?"

"I don't know, I wish I knew" I told her trying to hold back my tears. "We were fine, nothing has changed, nothing has happened." Except we kissed and I told him I wanted to be with Theo, I thought to myself. "I feel like he doesn't want to talk to me and I wanted to find out tonight what was going on but as you can tell he didn't want to talk. Come on let's just to the after party." I told her as I began walking again towards the limo.

Once inside the limo I had to fix my make-up as it was still drizzling outside from today's rain.

"Excuse me driver, can you please take us to the In-Style after party." Dianna told the driver.

"In style? Aren't we supposed to attend the networks after party? I asked a bit confused.

"Well change of plans, I overheard Cory telling Mark, before you came to talk to him. They decided to go to the network after party so we shall go to a different one."

I loved Dianna she did not know my entire story but she understood that I could not be around him at this time, I had to clear my head. The party was great I spoke with great people, but deep down I could not wait until I was at home. After the party Dianna and I returned to a hotel where our style teams were waiting for our dresses. We changed and headed back to our place.

"I'm going to bed its 2 a.m. and I am exhausted." Dianna said as she walked towards her room. "Good night Lea she said as she closed her bedroom door.

"Good night Di, I'll be going to bed soon too" I answered her as I headed into the kitchen for a glass of water. As I was drinking my water my phone beeped. It was a message.

 _Hey Lea, Are you awake?_ It was Cory. I debated to answer, if he had no time to talk to me before why would he want to talk to me now at 2 a.m. But deep down I knew I would be dying of the curiosity of what he wanted to tell me. I guess if text is all I was going to get than I would take it.

 _Yea, I am. What's going on?_ I answered back. Within a few seconds I received a response.

 _I am sorry about what happened earlier, but I want to talk to you, if that is ok with you?_

 _Don't worry about it, yes we can talk. Do you want me to call you or you call me?_ I answered back.

 _Actually I am outside your apartment door, I didn't want to knock in case you guys were asleep. Do you mind opening the door for me please?_

What?! He was here, outside my door. I quickly ran to the restroom to make sure I looked presentable. Obviously I had no time to change so he would have to see me in my short pajamas. I walked over to the front door, I stood there debating to let him in or just text him that I couldn't let him in. I removed the lock and opened the door slowly afraid to wake up Dianna.

There he stood at the entrance of my apartment, at 2 am in the morning, looking so handsome how was I to turn him away now.


	12. My Charm

I stood at the door entrance just looking at him. He had changed from his earlier black tux, white shirt and his silver tie, he looked so handsome before but I loved the current Cory standing at my door. Wearing his usual clothes his jeans, a black T-shirt and his navy blue hoodie with his sneakers.

"Is it ok if I come in?" he asked in a whisper.

"Oh yea of course, sorry Cory come on in" I gestured for him to come in. He walked in just a few steps from the door. I closed the door and turned to find him still standing at the same spot. "Cory come on have a seat in the couch, you don't have to wait for me. I think we are good enough friends that you can come into my place and have a seat." I told him with a smile.

"Sorry" he said as he walked around to the couch and took a seat. "Is Dianna asleep?"

"Yea she is, she actually had just gone in before you text me, I was here in the kitchen getting a glass of water." I told him as I took a seat away from him on the couch

"Guess I better talk low don't want to wake her up" he said looking towards her room. He then got off his seat and sat at the empty space that was separating us. "Lea first off I want to apologize for earlier, I really didn't mean to blow you off like that."

"Cory its ok don't worry I understand you needed to talk to Mark, don't worry. I just want to make sure we are ok. Wait, this talk seems familiar." I told him with a giggle. "I guess it's my turn to ask you if I have done or said something to upset you, If I have I am sorry" I told him looking down at my hands.

He took his right hand and brought my face to look at him.

"This is what I was afraid of, that you would think you did something wrong. There is nothing wrong with you Lea, you are perfect." he said to me almost in a whisper. Staring into his eyes and seeing his apologetic eyes staring back at me I felt tears start running down my face. He took my face in both his hands and with his thumbs wiped the tears away.

"Please don't cry, let me explain myself to you." he put his forehead against mine. "Please Lea trust me you have done nothing wrong. Everything is ok between us." He brought his face up again to look at mine. "If you stop crying I will give you a surprise" he said as he raised an eyebrow and gave me his beautiful smile.

I wiped the last tears from eyes and put a smile on my face. He chuckled. He knew that I loved surprises. He reached into the pocket of his hoodie and took out a small little brown box. He looked at me and opened it, I looked to see what was inside. I just stared at him a little confused. He laughed. He took out a gold necklace from inside the box, it had a little "R" charm on it.

"This Ms. Lea Michele" he said as he unbuckled the lock and started to put the necklace on me. "is for you, I know you feel close to Rachel and this "R" is a symbol for her. I just wanted you to have something to remind you of her and well of me." he said. His face close to mine as he was struggling locking the necklace in place. I could feel his warm breath on my cheek. He finally locked it and followed the chain down to the "R" charm with his fingers.

"Thank you so much Cory. I love it" I hugged him tightly holding on to him from his neck.

He hugged me around my waist. "Your welcome" he whispered in my ear. I held on to him for a minute and I would have held on longer because there was no effort made in him to release me. But I decided I had to let him go, I sat back down and took the small "R" charm between my index and thumb, I looked up and smiled at him. I could see it in his face he was happy to know I had like it. I actually truly loved it because it was coming from him.

"Now I want to talk to you about everything, I want you just to please listen to me I need to tell you everything and If you talk I know I won't get it all out." he stared at me waiting for my agreement, I just nodded yes to him.

"I want you to understand and know you have done nothing to me, I have no problem with you, It's all me. I hate myself for allowing myself to treat you the way I have treated you for the past few weeks. I know me not talking to you is not the solution and seeing your face tonight after I went to talk to Mark I told myself I would not do such a thing to you anymore. I need to take care of this myself and I will get it taken care of. I just ask that you please be patient with me Lea."

"Cory please, you…" he put his finger to my lips.

"Please Lea, let me finish. I have to be completely honest with you about everything because I will be a little distant from you for a few more days. Trust me if this wasn't better for the both of us I would not do this, I adore you Lea, you are such a great person, such an amazing girl. I have not met anyone like you. I see you and all these feelings of when I kissed you come back inside me. I thought I might have a chance that I might be able to deal with everything as long as I had you in my life. But I can't, I cannot look at you with out wanting to hold you, without wanting to be near you, without…wanting to kiss you again." he said the last past as a whisper. I sat there in disbelief.

"I told you I would respect the relationship between Theo and you and I will do it. When he called you the day of the people's choice awards. It broke me. I was ready to kiss you and it was a sign for me that I was doing everything wrong. I had to put space between us and that was the only way I knew how, not talking to you and avoiding you was the way I thought would be better but I was dying inside."

"I am sorry Cory, I truly am" I told him, as I went to hug him.

"Like I told you Lea it's not your fault, it's not your fault you are so adorable" he said with a chuckle. He embraced me in a hug. "It's all better now, trust me I am better. I just wanted you to know so that you don't think I was being an ass"

"I am glad you told me Cory, is there anything I can do?" I asked him still holding on to him.

He laughed "Oh Lea, just keep on being you, I am fine now that you know. Well I guess I better go now, its 3 am and you need your rest." he released the hug and got off the couch, I followed him towards the door.

"I will see you tomorrow on the set right" I asked once we were at the door. He opened the door and stepped out.

"Of course you will" he smiled and gave me one last hug. He kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear "Please stay in my life"

"Always" I whispered back as I kissed his cheek. We finished hugging, he smiled at me before walking out the door and towards the stairs. I closed the door and locked it. I walked over to my room and laid on my bed. I grabbed the "R" on my necklace I began to think on his last words " _please stay in my life"._ Oh sweet Cory I thought _I_ will always be in his life because I needed him to be in mine


	13. Invitation

After Cory and I had our talk things did seem to go back to normal, we were able to talk more and hang out. It was all going so great until a week after. We were filming a scene where Cory's character was supposed to sing a song called "Jessie's girl" and that same time he was supposed to sing it to me, well my character. The first couple of takes were going great, until Ryan told him for him to come and sing in front of me. Cory sort of looked at Ryan not sure if it was such a great idea.

"Cory just go over and look at Lea, like you want her. Like the girl you cannot have because she is dating this other guy" Ryan told Cory.

"Um, ok I will try it." Cory said turning to look at me.

"Ok, Places everyone" Ryan called out "Lights, camera, playback, action"

The song began to play and Cory walked around my chair and stopped in front of me, he sang his line and finished the scene.

"Cut, great job Cory I think we got it" Ryan said

He walked over to his seat looking down at his shoes. He would not turn to look at me. I wanted to get up and talk to him, to tell him the song sounded great. As I was contemplating when I saw Kevin walk over to him.

"That was great Cory, it made me believe you wanted Lea," he said "Its easy motivation right, since she is with Theo?"

Cory turned to look at me "Well it was Finn singing not me" he said and walked out the set. He did return to finish the last filming of his scene. After he was done he left.

The next day we had to do a few more scenes together, I was really afraid that we would be stepping back to the same problems of before. I felt like I had to tell him I had feelings for him to please bear with me a while longer that I wasn't really sure of what I wanted and to please not to give up on me, on the possibility of us.

When I arrived at the set in the afternoon he was already there. He was talking to Mark and Dianna they were all laughing at something Dianna was showing them on her phone. I was afraid to go up to them and Cory either stop laughing and smiling or even worse walk away. I decided I needed to take the risk because if he decided to walk away then I would follow him and tell him what I felt.

"Hey guys" I said to them as cheerful as I could "What's so funny?"

They all turned to look at me, Cory still with a smile on his face. That was a good sign I hoped.

"Nothing really we were just telling Cory that we just found out he went on a date yesterday" Mark said.

A date? I thought, the pain in my stomach returned.

"Oh, great" I said as I tried to keep the smile on my face. I wanted no more answers, I had no more questions.

"Yea it's about time, don't you think Lea?" Mark asked "We are all basically seeing someone and its good here for the Teeth to find someone too"

"Oh come on Mark, it's not even like that. It was just dinner. Nothing like a date" Cory intervened.

"Well its nice Cory, I mean it's great for you I mean you can date, and go on dates, with whoever you want to date, you are single you can do that, and…

"Ok Lea I think we all get it" Dianna stopped me before I just kept babbling on.

"Um, ok well I guess I will go run my lines before we start." I said as I began to walk past them.

"Wait up Lea, don't you want to see how cute they look together" Mark called out to me as he came walking to my side.

"Mark, come back here with my phone" Dianna yelled for him.

"Mark seriously" Cory shouted.

"Here Lea look" Mark said handing me the phone. I looked at the picture he was showing me. 'She is so pretty right, I mean you have met her she is one of the nicest person and… 

"Yes Mark she is, now I have got to go get my lines ready" I handed him back the phone and walked over to the choir room set. He went on a date with her, he went on a date with Taylor. This pain in my stomach was getting worse. I wanted to get out of the set, I wanted to just run. Here I was worried about his feeling and he goes on a date.

"Hey Lea" Dianna walked into the choir room set, she came and took the chair next to me.

"Oh Di" I just turned and hugged her, tears began rolling down my eyes,

"Lea, sweetie, what's wrong?" Dianna asked concerned "It was the picture right? You have feelings for him don't you?"

"I don't know what I feel" I told her releasing the hug to look at her "he is single Di, I am not. It's my choice not to be single, it's my choice to be with Theo"

"Yes, it is" Dianna said

"Then tell me why does it hurt so much to know he has someone else?"

"Because you do have feelings for him, you have to admit it to yourself Lea, you cannot run from what you feel. I know you love Theo but I know you feel something for Cory, I know he came over a week ago to talk to you at 2am. I know it made you happy, girl you got up and made breakfast the next day I felt like I was in a Disney movie with you singing all we needed was for the birds to come in through the window" she said making me laugh.

"Yes I do care for Cory, he does make me happy, but what am I to do now?" as I asked her that questions Cory and Ryan walked onto the set. I had to wipe the tears from my eyes. Dianna helped me to make sure I didn't look like I was crying. I sat there watching Cory talk to Ryan and Cory be his charming, smiling self.

I was about to leave for my photo shoot even though I was feeling sick to my stomach when Dianna caught me before I pulled out of the lot.

"Lea you have to decide on what to do soon, Mark just told me that Cory is going out with her again tomorrow to the Clive Davis pre-Grammy party." Dianna said quickly as she had to run back to set.

I knew I had to make a decision and I had to make it soon, or lose him completely.

The Grammy's had been a few nights ago and yes he did go to dinner with her. I attended the Grammy's and presented an award to Beyoncé. It was one of those amazing nights! But now it was back to reality and I had not spoken to him for a few days, today would be one of the first days I would see him back on set. He had just come back from the studio when he stepped into our set, I was sitting by myself going over some emails on my cell phone.

"Good Morning everyone" he said as walked into the set. We all replied with a good morning. He walked over to Mark, Kevin and Harry. They chatted for a few minutes between laughs. I figured Cory had to catch them up on his date. Shooting began just like always, then we moved to work with Zach on a new choreography we had to learn. It had been such a busy day I loved it because it kept my mind occupied. I was laying on the floor cooling down when I heard someone come over, I just laid there not wanting to open my eyes.

"Whoa what a day!" Cory exclaimed as he laid on the floor next to me. "Long time no talk, how are you doing Lea?"

I laughed "Hey Cory, I'm good, yea it has been a while." It was now or never I thought to myself. "Want to know something?" as I propped myself on an elbow and turn to face him.

"Yes of course" he said as got on his side to face me.

"I have missed you" I whispered to him and giving him one of my big smiles.

"Really?" he asked a bit shocked. I nodded. "I have missed you too" he said.

'You have or you're just saying that because I said it first?" I asked him

"I would never do something like that, you know me. I have really missed you why do you think I had to come over here while I know you're not going to get up and leave." he said with a smile. He laid back down and took my hand and entwined his fingers with mine. I laid back down and scooted myself next to him.

"I'm glad you came over to me Frankenteen" I told him with a chuckle.

"Having you this close I think this was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time" he chuckled.

We laid on the floor for quite a while, so long that we ended up being the last ones in the rehearsal room. It was so peaceful. A few minutes later he sat up but still held on to my hand. I sat up next to him.

"Let's go get something to eat Lea" he said turning to look at me.

"Sure, where do you want to go?" I said getting on my feet. He got up from the floor.

"I know the perfect place, come on let's go" he said as he took me towards the door. "Do you have to shoot anymore scenes today?" he asked as we walked out to the parking lot.

"No, I am all done" I said as I followed him, staring down at our hands still entwined.

"Great" he took me to his car and opened the passenger door and turned to look at me. I would normally ask about taking my car but I was not ready to ruin this. I got into the car, he closed the door and walked over to the driver's side. He got into the car and started up, the stereo came on and I couldn't help but smile as my version of "Taking Chances" came on. I turned to look at him and he gave me one of his perfect smiles.

"This song gave me the idea of going over to you" he said shyly. "Can I ask you a favor?" 

"Of course, anything" I told him looking into his eyes.

"Can you sing it for me?"

I stared at him for a few seconds, I nodded. He put the car in reverse and started to drive out of the lot, He put the song back from the beginning, he took my hand once more our fingers entwined. I began to sing along with the song. Every once in a while, I could feel him turn to look at me. We continued the drive and sang along together to different songs. It felt so great singing with him, it felt different than when we sang this song on the show. This time I can feel more emotion and holding his hand made it even more real. He did not hold back his singing, it was like having our own private concert. I didn't care where we were going I just wanted to be here and cherish this moment. Be here with him. Can't fight this feeling came on and I began to tear up. Hearing him sing to me alone, it was completely different. I had so many emotions. Not once did he turn to look my way while he sang. I actually felt relieved he didn't because I didn't want him to see me cry and stop singing. I kept staring out the window as he kept driving, when the song was over both of us just sat there quite just listening to the music play on. After a few minutes the car came to a stop. I looked around but we were nowhere near a restaurant, it looked like we were at a residential street. I turned to look at Cory. He turned off the car, released my hand and unbuckled himself. He got off the car and came over to the passenger side. He opened my door and stretched his hand for me to take. I unbuckled myself and took his hand, still confused as to what we were doing here.

"Uh, Cory, I thought we were going to go eat" I told him as I looked around still confused.

"We are, I told you I know the prefect place. Don't you trust me?" he asked raising his eyebrow.

"Yes of course, just confused why we are here in a bunch of houses."

"Well I decided the best place would be for me to cook for you, this is my house" he said pointing at the house behind him.

"Oh" was all I could say. I just stared at him and then at the house. He brought me to his place, his house.


End file.
